ON  BECOMING 
AN  AMERICAN 

H GRACE  J.   BKIDGES 


Smil  G.   Beck 


ON    BECOMING   AN   AMERICAN 


J..^^^^^ 


ON  BECOMING  AN 
AMERICAN 

SOME  meditations;cf:  ; 

A  NEWLY  NATURALIZE^  IMMIQ^ANT 
BY 

HORACE  J.  BRIDGES 

AUTHOR  or  "criticisms  of  life,"  "the  religion  of  experience,'* 

"our  fellow  SHAKESPEARE,"   ETC. 


BOSTON 
MARSHALL  JONES  COMPANY 

MCMXIX 


B7 


COPYRIGHT,    I918 
BY   MARSHALL  JONES  COMPANY 


All  rights  reser-vtd 


m  MEMORIAM 


THE  UNIVERSITY   PRESS,    CAMBRIDGE,   U.S.A. 


7Si 


TO 

zMRS.  TiJCHARTi  lVJRR€:Ni,S£ARS 

WHOSE  KINDLY  SYMPATHY  AND  GENEROUS  RECOGNITION  HAVE 

ENCOURAGED    THE    AUTHOR    TO    HOPE    THAT    HIS 

WORK    MAY   NOT   DISHONOUR  THE   HIGH 

GIFT  OF  AMERICAN  CITIZENSHIP 

THIS  'BOOK^  IS  gRATSFULLT ^ND  RCSVeCTFULLT 
'DETHCATCTt 


9351'11 


PREFACE 

THE  acrid  epigram  of  Johnson,  that  "  Patriot- 
ism is  the  last  refuge  of  a  scoundrel,"  still 
lingers  at  the  back  of  our  minds,  and  induces  a  cer- 
tain anticipatory  distrust  of  a  person  who  makes 
public  proclamation  of  his  devotion  to  the  country 
of  his  birth  or  choice.  So  long  as  your  chief  reason 
for  believing  a  man  virtuous  is  that  you  have  his  own 
word  for  it,  your  feelings  towards  him  will  be  mixed, 
and  appreciation  and  confidence  will  assuredly  not 
be  the  dominant  elements  in  them. 

Nevertheless,  it  would  be  unfortunate  if  this 
obvious  consideration  should  prevail  to  the  extent  of 
preventing  anybody  from  expressing  himself,  either 
in  speech  or  writing,  on  the  subject  of  patriotism 
and  its  obligations.  The  matter  has  great  practical 
importance.  Nowhere  is  this  truer  than  in  Amer- 
ica, and  never  was  it  more  true  than  at  the  present 
hour.  Nor  must  we  let  the  partizan  virus  of  John- 
son's dictum  infect  our  feelings  to  such  an  extent 
that  they  send  our  judgment  packing.  Even  the 
adoring  Boswell  felt  it  necessary  to  demur  to  his 
idol's  assertion,  and,  in  recording  it,  to  explain  what 
Johnson  ought  to  have  meant. 

We  know  that  it  is  not  patriotism  in  which  the 
scoundrel  takes  refuge,  any  more  than  it  is  holiness 
to  which  the  hypocrite  resorts.     Nothing  is  so  like  a 


vlii  PREFACE 

genuine  coin  as  a  counterfeit  one ;  but  no  two  things 
are  more  different.  The  scoundrel  may  mask  him- 
self with  a  profession  of  patriotism,  just  as  Mr. 
Chadband  may  soak  himself  in  the  unction  of  pre- 
tended piety  until  he  reeks  of  it;  but  in  neither  case 
will  the  imposture  stand  the  acid  test.  Johnson  was 
thinking  of  a  set  of  men  who  for  discreditable  per- 
sonal reasons  had  pretended  to  a  patriotism  which 
they  did  not  really  possess.  They  abused  this  term, 
just  as  among  us  at  the  present  day  the  fine  word 
Politics  is  "  soiled  with  all  ignoble  use,"  by  persons 
who  do  not  know  its  real  meaning,  and  have  no 
tincture  of  the  spirit  or  the  science  which  the  term 
properly  denotes. 

Politics,  we  must  remind  ourselves,  is  the  science 
that  lies  beyond  ethics.  It  was  in  this  sense  that  its 
greatest  ancient  master,  Aristotle,  understood  and 
treated  the  subject.  His  work  on  Morals  is  de- 
signed and  placed  as  an  introduction  to  the  work  on 
Politics  that  follows  it.  He  treats  Morals  as  the 
science  of  the  conduct  of  individual  men  in  their 
personal  relations;  Politics,  as  the  science  of  the 
conduct  of  cities  and  States.  This  latter  is  the  art 
of  counselling  and  serving  one's  country,  not  (as  in 
our  nauseous  perversion)  the  art  of  preying  upon 
one's  country,  and  making  the  pretence  of  its  service 
a  cloak  under  which  to  rob  it.  In  like  manner. 
Patriotism  denotes  the  spirit  which  is  ready  to  live 
and  die  for  the  ideals  of  one's  country,  not  only  in 
war  with  foreign  enemies,  but  also  when  its  stand- 
ards have  to  be  asserted  against  the  perverted  senti- 
ment or  the  irrational  Impetuosity  of  one's  fellow- 


PREFACE 


IX 


citizens.  It  implies,  accordingly,  that  one  shall  be 
ready  to  think  for  one's  nation  as  well  as  to  fight 
for  it. 

Now,  a  man  may  venture  upon  occasion  to  write 
on  Patriotism  in  this  sense,  without  falling  into  the 
absurdity  of  seeming  to  present  himself  as  a  model 
patriot.  And  the  way,  I  take  it,  by  which  he  may 
avoid  this  extravagance  is  by  recognizing  that  patri- 
otism is  a  virtue  towards  which  he  must  aspire, 
rather  than  a  quality  of  character  which  he  has  al- 
ready attained.  Once  it  is  understood  that  patriot- 
ism is  a  virtue,  it  becomes  no  more  offensive  or 
pretentious  to  write  of  it  than  to  treat  of  any  other 
subdivision  of  the  field  of  ethics. 

Such,  at  least,  is  my  apologia  in  venturing  to  sub- 
mit these  informal  Meditations  to  the  judgment  of 
the  public.  But  perhaps  some  explanation  may  be 
desirable  on  another  point  of  detail. 

Precedent  would  suggest  that  a  book  of  this  kind 
should  take  the  form  of  an  autobiography.  Dr. 
Edward  Steiner  and  the  late  Mr.  Jacob  Riis  have 
both  woven  their  ideas  on  the  meaning  of  America 
and  the  obligations  of  the  naturalized  immigrant 
into  the  form  of  histories  of  their  personal  careers. 
More  famous  even  than  their  well-known  works  is 
the  entrancing  volume  of  my  brilliantly  gifted  friend 
Mary  Antin,  entitled  "  The  Promised  Land."  In 
this  she  has  given  us  one  of  those  masterpieces 
which,  under  the  guise  of  a  record  of  individual 
experience,  bring  before  us  the  full  pulsating  life  of 
ages  and  nations.  You  read  what  seems  to  be  only 
the  artless  tale  of  the  adventures  of  Mary  Antin, 


X  PREFACE 

first  as  a  little  Jewish  girl  living  among  her  perse- 
cuted people  in  Russia,  and  afterwards  as  the  bud- 
ding American  citizen,  focussing  upon  herself  and 
sensitively  responding  to  the  influences  of  school  and 
Settlement  and  college  in  Boston.  But  before  you 
have  finished,  it  dawns  upon  you  that  this  seemingly 
simple  story  is  an  epitome  of  the  agelong  tragedy  of 
the  whole  Jewish  people  under  persecution,  and  also 
of  the  emancipating  mission  of  America  to  the  op- 
pressed of  all  the  earth. 

Evidently,  however,  one  must  either  be  a  very 
exceptional  person,  or  stand  in  a  very  uncommon 
position,  to  be  justified  in  publishing  an  autobiog- 
raphy. In  Mary  Antin's  case,  both  these  conditions 
are  fulfilled.  The  same  was  true  of  Mr.  Riis  and 
Dr.  Steiner,  and  yet  more  unmistakably  so  of  that 
finely  distinguished  patriot,  that  anima  7iaturaUter 
A7nericana,  the  late  Carl  Schurz.  Nor  can  even 
genius,  or  the  wide  significance  of  the  experiences 
recorded,  completely  safeguard  the  autoblographer 
against  an  appearance  of  egotism,  which,  however 
Illusory  it  may  be,  nevertheless  creates  in  the  reader's 
mind  an  impression  which  the  most  ordinary  sensi- 
tiveness leads  one  to  shrink  from.  Neither  her 
genius  nor  her  artistic  success  has  availed  to  protect 
Mary  Antin  against  this  most  distasteful  imputation. 
To  judge  from  Dr.  Steiner's  book,  one  cannot  but 
think  that  he  must  have  frankly  taken  for  his  motto 
the  words,  "They  say!  What  do  they  say?  Let 
them  say  1  "  With  a  courage  that  I  could  not  emu- 
late, he  has  made  of  himself  a  "subject,"  in  the  sense 
in  which  the  anatomist  or  the  psychologist  would 


PREFACE  xi 

use  the  term.  In  a  manner  more  obtrusive  even  than 
Montaigne's,  he  has  followed  that  classical  prece- 
dent by  making  himself  the  matter  of  his  book. 

Now  I  cannot  presume  on  any  ground  to  place 
myself  in  competition  with  these  eminent  autobiog- 
raphers,  or  to  suggest  a  parity  between  myself  and 
them.  My  individual  experiences  have  been  of  the 
commonplace  kind  that  deserve  no  record,  and  se- 
cure none,  save  in  the  indulgent  memory  of  personal 
friends;  nor  have  I  attained  any  such  distinction  as 
would  impart  to  the  episodes  of  my  life  that  extrinsic 
interest  which  alone  can  justify  autobiography  or 
biography.  Quite  apart,  however,  from  the  ques- 
tion of  one's  personal  significance  or  insignificance, 
the  plan  pursued  in  the  following  pages  may  possess 
at  least  one  advantage  which  is  lacking  to  the  auto- 
biographical method,  even  when  the  author-subject 
possesses  outstanding  genius  or  has  lived  a  life  the 
incidents  of  which  merit  public  consideration.  This 
advantage  is  that  in  an  abstract  or  impersonal  pres- 
entation of  the  principles  involved  in  a  voluntary 
change  of  nationality,  the  general  import  of  those 
principles  is  less  likely  to  be  overlooked  than  when 
the  charm  of  a  personal  history  competes  with  them 
and  distracts  attention  from  them. 

Accordingly,  I  have  attempted  only  to  set  forth, 
in  the  informal  and  unsystematic  fashion  suggested 
by  the  word  Meditations,  my  convictions  as  to  the 
deeper  implications  of  a  transaction  which,  although 
qtid  oneself  it  be  insignificant,  derives  a  large  and 
enduring  importance  from  the  fact  that  a  great  na- 
tion is  a  party  to  it.     I  desire  to  place  myself  upon 


xii  PREFACE 

record  as  one  who  with  deep  gratitude  appreciates 
the  privileges  conferred  upon  him  by  the  Republic, 
and  Is  not  oblivious  of  the  corresponding  obligations 
which  he  has  assumed. 

My  first  Impulse  was  to  cast  these  chapters  Into 
the  form  of  letters  to  my  children,  that  upon  their 
arrival  at  years  of  maturity  they  might  learn  In  what 
spirit  their  father  had  renounced  his  allegiance  to 
the  land  of  his  birth,  and  sworn  fealty,  for  them 
as  well  as  for  himself,  to  the  United  States.  Further 
reflection,  however,  suggested  that  this  purpose 
would  perhaps  be  better  met  If  my  Meditations  on 
the  subject  had  run  the  gauntlet  of  publication  and 
criticism  before  my  children  scanned  them. 

And,  as  my  thoughts  unfolded  themselves  in  the 
process  of  preparation  and  writing,  I  could  not 
avoid  the  hope  that  this  brief  and  simple  statement 
of  them  might  possess  a  certain  value  for  other 
immigrants,  whether  of  the  same  national  origin  as 
myself  or  sprung  from  different  lands  or  races.  At 
the  same  time,  too,  the  recollection  of  the  cordial- 
ity of  many  audiences  before  whom  some  of  the 
thoughts  I  was  expressing  had  been  uttered,  inspired 
the  feeling  that  possibly  even  to  born  Americans 
my  Meditations  might  be  not  altogether  devoid  of 
value  or  of  interest.  For  the  Immigrant  Is,  during 
several  years,  in  the  position  of  the  onlooker,  who 
proverbially  sees  more  of  the  game  than  the  players. 
The  accident  &f  his  position,  too,  compels  him  to 
think  out  the  question  of  his  relation  to  his  country, 
and  to  define  for  himself  the  obligations  as  well  as 
the  privileges  of  citizenship.    This  gives  him  a  cer- 


PREFACE  xiil 

tain  advantage  o\'er  those  who,  having  never  con- 
templated the  abandonment  of  the  loyalty  to  which 
they  were  born,  have  never  had  occasion  to  subject 
themselves  to  any  such  process  of  self-examination. 

I  can  but  hope  that  these  considerations  will  ex- 
cuse the  apparent  presumption  of  a  newcomer  in 
airing  his  opinions  concerning  the  process  by  which 
immigrants  are  assimilated  into  the  Republic,  and 
upon  the  more  delicate  subject  of  the  relation  be- 
tween the  Nation  and  the  States.  The  importance 
of  these  matters  would  at  any  time  make  it  excusable 
for  an  American  to  subject  them  to  his  most  care- 
ful study.  If  a  newcomer  needs  some  additional 
justification  for  treating  of  them,  I  trust  that  the 
foregoing  explanation  may  be  accepted  as  furnish- 
ing it. 

Several  years  ago,  when  my  position  was  that  of 
a  visiting  lecturer  from  England,  and  before  I  had 
decided  to  make  my  permanent  abode  in  this  coun- 
try, some  friends  in  New  York  urged  me  to  refrain 
from  writing  a  book  upon  America  until  my  experi- 
ence of  the  land  and  its  people  had  become  some- 
what closer  and  more  extensive.  Having  already 
felt  not  a  little  humiliated  by  the  audacious  super- 
ficiality of  Mr.  Wells's  volume  on  "  The  Future  in 
America,"  and  by  the  remarks  concerning  parlour- 
cars  and  skyscrapers  in  Mr.  Arnold  Bennett's  "  Im- 
pressions of  a  First  Visit,"  I  promptly  replied  that 
nothing  would  induce  me  to  attempt  such  a  task 
until  I  had  enjoyed  at  least  ten  years  of  familiarity 
with  American  life.  No  Englishman  unequipped 
with  the  mask  of  brass  habitually  worn  by  the  popu- 


xlv  PREFACE 

lar  practitioners  of  journalism,  can  think  without 
shame  of  the  contrast  between  such  a  masterpiece 
as  Emerson's  "  English  Traits  "  and  the  triviality 
and  inadequacy  of  many  of  the  volumes  dealing  with 
America  produced  by  English  authors.  If  ever  the 
time  comes  when  I  shall  have  completed  the  proba- 
tion I  imposed  upon  myself,  it  shall  at  least  be  my 
endeavour  that  any  study  of  America  which  I  may 
produce  shall  compensate  by  fullness  of  information 
for  lack  of  the  genius  and  insight  which  go  so  far 
to  redeem  the  appalling  defects  of  some  English 
criticisms  of  America.  But  that  time  is  not  yet;  and 
I  refer  to  the  matter  here  only  to  remind  the  friends 
to  whom  I  gave  my  promise  that  this  book  in  no 
sense  constitutes  a  breach  of  it.  It  is  not  a  book  on 
America;  it  is  only  a  sort  of  informal  soliloquy  on 
the  meaning  of  Americanism,  as  regarded  from  the 
standpoint  of  one  newly  initiated  into  it. 

Several  of  the  principles  underlying  the  latter  half 
of  this  book  (from  Chapter  VI  onwards)  are  con- 
sidered in  a  more  general  manner,  and  with  fuller 
reference  to  history,  philosophy  and  religion,  in  an 
earlier  work  of  mine,  entitled  *'  Some  Outlines  of 
the  Religion  of  Experience  "  (pubhshed  by  The 
Macmillan  Company).  Readers  who  feel  that  the 
treatment  of  the  subject  in  these  pages  leaves  open 
questions  which  they  would  care  to  see  differently 
discussed,  will  perhaps  do  me  the  honour  of  turning 
to  this  other  book. 

H.  J.  B. 

Chicago,  July  4,  1918. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.    The  Privilege  of  Naturalization  i 

II.    The  Duty  of  Naturalization   .    .  12 

III.  What  Can  I  Give  to  America?  .    .  24 

IV.  What  Can  America  Give  to  Me?  .  46 
V.    The     Renunciation     of     Foreign 

Loyalties 64 

VI.    To  What  Does  One  Swear  Alle- 
giance?      79 

VII.    The  American  Experiment    ...  94 

VIII.    The  Fallacy  of  the  Melting-Pot  109 

IX.    The    National-Group    Idea,    and 

the  Anti-Nationalists     ....  122 

X.    The     Right    Method:     Cultural 

Cross-Fertilization 135 

XI.    "My  Country,  Right  or  Wrong"  150 
XII.    The   Religious  Aspect  of  Ameri- 
canism       166 


ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 


llE  njoho  freely  magnifies  nvhat  hath  been  nobly 
done,  and  fears  not  to  declare  as  freely  nvhat 
might  be  done  better,  giijes  ye  the  best  covenant 
of  his  fidelity,  and  that  his  loyalist  affection  and 
his  hope  ivaits  on  your  proceedings.  His  highest 
praising  is  not  flattery,  and  his  plainest  ad'vice 
is  a  kind  of  praisitig."" — John  Milton  to  the 
Long  Parliament  (^1644). 


ON  BECOMING  AN 
AMERICAN 

CHAPTER    I 

THE    PRIVILEGE    OF    NATURALIZATION 

IN  the  month  of  August,  19 13,  I  stood  with  my 
wife  and  children  on  the  deck  of  a  majestic 
steamer  at  Liverpool,  and  waved  farewells  to  the 
people  ashore.  Our  relatives  and  nearest  friends 
had  said  good-bye  to  us  at  Euston  Station  in  Lon- 
don, and  now  we  had  to  take  leave  not  of  our  imme- 
diate kith  and  kin,  but  of  our  fellow-countrymen  in 
general,  and  of  the  dear  old  land  itself.  I  had  spent 
the  previous  winter  in  America,  spying  out  the  land, 
so  to  speak,  from  my  own  little  point  of  view,  and 
had  decided  to  take  my  family  across  the  ocean  with 
me,  to  make  a  new  home  and  discover  an  appro- 
priate field  for  our  life-work.  Since  my  return  to 
England  in  the  spring  of  1913,  time  had  fled  rapidly, 
and  we  had  been  busily  occupied  with  preparations 
for  our  great  adventure.  And  now  the  day  had 
come.  Our  household  gods  had  been  dispersed  — 
some  ahead  of  us  to  America,  to  impart  a  kindly 
savour  of  the  old  home  to  the  new;  others  to  friends, 
to  keep  alive  our  memory  and  serve  as  links  with 


2       ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

the  bodily  presence,  after  we  were  gone.  We  had 
pulled  up  our  roots;  and,  like  millions  before  us,  had 
set  out  in  faith  to  find  new  soil  wherein.  If  the  fates 
were  kindly,  we  might  "  branch  and  blossom  as 
before."  The  great  ocean-palace  (since,  alas!  sent 
to  the  depths  by  one  of  those  dastardly  acts  of 
piratical  assassination  which  have  made  the  world- 
war  more  Infamous  than  any  that  ever  happened 
before)  lay  fair  and  spotless  In  the  summer  sun- 
shine, awaiting  its  hour  to  glide  with  smooth  preci- 
sion down  the  crowded  Mersey  and  out  Into  the 
beaten  path  of  the  tamed  Atlantic. 

To  our  little  ones  the  day  was  one  of  joyous  ad- 
venture. They  were  faring  forth  into  the  unknown. 
The  ship,  with  her  marvels  of  science  and  ingenuity, 
was  all  a  wonder  and  a  wild  desire.  With  the  full 
flooding  life  of  boyhood,  they  found  the  fleeting 
moment  all-sufficient  and  all-entrancing.  Yesterday 
was  dead;  to-day  was  so  thrilling  that  to-morrow 
was  unthought-of.  America  was  a  magic  name, 
like  Atlantis  or  the  Hesperides.  They  wondered 
at  the  grave  faces  of  father  and  mother,  for  they 
recked  nothing  of  the  pain  to  their  parents  that  had 
attended  the  ploughing  up  of  the  soil  of  heart  and 
memory,  and  the  plucking  out  of  roots  that  had 
struck  so  much  deeper  than  consciousness.  Nor  did 
they  yet  dream  of  the  years  of  anxious  pre-occupa- 
tlon  which  we  already  felt  ahead,  —  the  long  labour 
of  mental  and  spiritual  adjustment  to  a  new  world  of 
hearts  and  faces,  a  new  physical  environment,  new 
manners  and  customs,  Ideals  and  standards,  new 
life-values,  a  new  social  order.     Fortunate  were  the 


PRIVILEGE   OF   NATURALIZATION     3 

youngsters,  in  that  the  change  came  for  them  at  a 
time  when  their  world  was  fluent  and  plastic,  when 
they  had  not  yet  grappled  other  souls  to  theirs  with 
the  steel  hoops  of  long  love  and  firm-set  will;  when 
each  new  companion  was  welcome  as  the  morning, 
and  each  older  face  no  harder  to  part  from  than 
yesterday  when  it  is  gone  I 

But  now  the  time  has  come  when  I  have  had  to 
make  a  further  decision:  the  most  solemn,  the  most 
weight}^  the  most  tremendous  in  its  import  for  wife 
and  children,  as  well  as  for  oneself,  that  It  can  ever 
befall  a  man  to  make.  In  this  decision  I  had  to  act 
not  only  for  myself,  but  for  my  family  as  well.  My 
sons  were  not  old  enough  to  understand  what  this 
change  imports,  or  to  share  with  me  the  responsibil- 
ity for  making  it.  I  therefore  write  these  chapters 
not  only  in  the  hope  that  they  may  help  other  men 
in  my  position  to  make  the  same  decision  as  I  have 
made,  and  to  make  It  with  Intelligence  as  well  as 
with  a  whole  heart,  but  also  with  the  desire  that  a 
few  years  hence  my  children  may  read  them,  and 
realize  that  in  choosing  for  them  the  sovereignty 
under  which  they  are  to  live,  I  did  not  act  hastily  or 
without  careful  thought. 

Nationality  Is  a  very  serious,  Indeed  a  sacred  fact. 
In  declaring  my  allegiance  to  America,  and  thereby 
severing  the  loyalty  that  has  hitherto  bound  me  to 
the  land  of  my  birth,  I  feel  as  I  imagine  a  person 
must  feel  who  changes  his  religion  and  makes  solemn 
public  profession  of  a  new  faith.  A  man  owes  it  to 
himself,  as  well  as  to  the  country  which  is  receiving 


4       ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

him,  to  interpret,  as  best  he  can,  what  he  under- 
stands to  be  the  significance  of  the  occasion. 

I  have  observed  that  thousands  of  persons  go 
through  the  rather  perfunctory  ceremony  of  natural- 
ization in  this  country  with  little  more  reflection  or 
seriousness  than  they  would  display  in  exchanging 
an  old  coat  for  a  new  one.  America  has  not  as  yet 
seen  the  need  of  investing  the  transaction  with  any 
very  impressive  dignity  or  solemnity.  The  formali- 
ties accompanying  it  are  as  unedifying  as  those  that 
attend  the  filling  up  of  a  tax-return.  The  officials 
entrusted  with  the  issuing  of  naturalization  papers 
are  (at  all  events  in  the  city  where  I  live)  a  hap- 
hazard assemblage  of  low-grade  "  political  appoint- 
ees," who  seem  to  be  deaf  and  blind  to  the  import 
of  the  acts  which  it  is  their  duty  to  perform  and  to 
record.^ 

But  America  in  her  deeper  selfhood  is  fully 
aware  of  the  immense  privilege  which  she  freely 
accords  to  the  newcomers  whom  in  such  vast  num- 
bers she  has  welcomed  from  all  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  Though  it  is  her  way  to  perform  her  public 
acts  with  a  sort  of  awkward  casualness,  and  not  to 
express  their  vital  meaning  by  symbol  or  ceremony, 
she  nevertheless  knows  that  the  engagement  into 
which  she  enters  with  her  recruits  of  foreign  birth 
is  one  of  vital  import  and  irrevocable  significance 
both  to  herself  and  to  them.  A  man  may  not  attach 
much  weight  to  the  plain  bald  sentences  with  which 
he  renounces  his  allegiance  to  the  sovereign  of  the 

*  See  the  account  of  Dr.  Edward  Steiner's  experience,  in  his  book 
"From  Alien  to  Citizen,"  p.  247.    (New  York:  Revell,  19 14.) 


PRIVILEGE  OF  NATURALIZATION     5 

count!-}'  whence  he  came,  and  pledges  his  fealty  to 
the  Republic.  Nevertheless  America  knows  well 
what  she  Is  offering  to  him,  and  what  she  demands 
of  him;  and  the  days  In  which  It  has  fallen  to  my 
lot  to  take  this  final  step  have  made  clear,  even  to 
the  most  self-absorbed  and  careless  immigrant,  the 
fact  that  he  has  to  commit  himself  to  an  engagement 
much  more  weighty,  more  heavily  laden  with  the 
issues  of  life  and  death,  than  any  other  relation  Into 
which  he  may  enter  —  even  than  marriage  itself. 

Such  a  matter  has  many  sides,  and  must  be 
considered  from  many  points  of  view.  In  this 
chapter  we  will  consider  it  with  reference  to  the 
privilege  which  America  confers  upon  her  adopted 
children. 

This  Republic,  which  owes  Its  existence  to  the 
blood-sacrifice  of  Its  founders,  offers  freely  to  all 
comers  the  citizenship  which  was  so  dearly  bought 
by  Its  makers.  The  Roman  official  before  whom 
St.  Paul  was  haled  declared  that  he  had  obtained 
his  imperial  citizenship  with  a  great  sum.  The 
privilege  of  incorporation  Into  the  American  Com- 
monwealth Is  bestowed  freely;  and  this  Is  as  It  should 
be,  for  such  a  gift  cannot  be  measured  in  any  terms 
of  money.  It  is  literally  a  priceless  thing,  because 
it  was  bought  with  men's  lives;  and  nothing  so 
purchased  can  be  valued  in  cash.  What,  then,  Is  It 
that  we  receive  thus  freely? 

In  the  first  place,  admission  to  American  citizen- 
ship means  participation  in  American  sovereignty. 
You  become  at  once  a  part  of  the  government  of 
your  country.      Nothing   stands   between   you   and 


6       ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

direct  participation  in  the  election  of  all  the  officials 
who  are  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  your  city  and  State 
and  the  Internal  and  external  course  of  the  nation  as 
a  whole.  Save  for  the  fact  that,  by  reason  of 
foreign  birth,  one  is  excluded  from  the  possibility 
of  occupying  the  highest  executive  post  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  there  is  no  office  in  city,  State  or 
nation  to  which  one  is  not,  by  the  fact  of  admission 
to  citizenship,  immediately  made  eligible.  One  be- 
comes automatically  a  voter  and  a  potential  candi- 
date for  the  suffrages  of  one's  fellow-citizens.  In 
the  land  of  my  birth,  while  it  was  theoretically  pos- 
sible for  one  to  attain  to  any  office  except  the  Crown, 
it  was  in  practice  most  exceptional  for  anybody  but 
those  born  in  a  small  and  exclusive  caste  to  attain  to 
any  important  governmental  or  diplomatic  position. 
That  is  not  the  case  in  this  country.  Despite  many 
deviations  from  the  ideal,  it  remains  the  fact  that 
any  boy  from  any  class  of  the  population  may  be- 
come a  member  of  the  Senate  or  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  his  State  or  of  the  national  Govern- 
ment. You  may  enter  any  profession,  and  the 
higher  education  which  is  necessary  as  a  qualifica- 
tion for  the  more  intellectual  and  scientific  profes- 
sions is  gratuitously  at  your  disposal.  There  is  still 
a  great  difference  in  this  respect  between  England 
and  America  —  notwithstanding  that  England  is 
the  most  democratic  nation  of  the  Old  World  in  this 
direction. 

The  next  privilege  conferred  by  naturalization  is 
that  of  moral  and  civic  equality  with  one's  fellow- 
citizens,   and  the  guarantee,   backed  by  the  whole 


PRIVILEGE  OF  NATURALIZATION     7 

physical  and  spiritual  force  of  the  nation,  of  all 
those  rights  listed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence and  the  Constitution  of  the  State  and  nation. 
The  philosophy  underlying  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  provisional  and  transient,  and,  in  my 
judgment,  has  been  proved  in  large  part  unsound 
and  untenable.  But  this  does  not  In  any  way  Impair 
the  practical  value  and  Importance  of  the  rights 
which  It  declares  to  be  Inalienable  and  universal.  It 
comes  to  this,  that  the  nation  regards  every  man  as 
being,  by  the  mere  fact  of  his  humanity,  equal  to 
every  other  human  being,  and  entitled  equally  with 
all  others  to  security  of  life  and  property,  to  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  whatever  he  may  freely  elect  as 
the  main  end  of  his  being.  These  privileges  are  con- 
ferred unconditionally.  No  question  Is  raised  as  to 
one's  pedigree,  as  to  the  education  one  has  received, 
as  to  the  wealth  or  poverty  of  oneself  or  one's  fore- 
bears. No  Inquisition  is  made  as  to  a  man's  reli- 
gious beliefs  or  (with  one  necessary  exception)  his 
political  doctrines;  on  the  contrary,  we  are  most 
expressly  and  solemnly  guaranteed  entire  liberty 
of  conscience.  The  nation  has  not  established  and 
does  not  maintain  any  form  of  worship  or  any  theo- 
logical creed.  It  believes  in  educating  all  its  citizens 
at  Its  own  expense,  because  it  recognizes  that  educa- 
tion is  necessary  to  the  discharge  of  the  high  re- 
sponsibilities which  Its  constitution  Imposes  upon 
all  of  them.  This  education  Is  Intended  not  to 
cut  men  to  a  set  pattern,  but  rather  to  enable  them 
to  think,  freely  for  themselv^es,  and  to  become 
independent  Individuals,  capable  not  only  of  obedi- 


8       ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

ence  to  constituted  authority,  but  also  of  initiative, 
counsel  and  criticism  in  the  conduct  of  the  nation's 
affairs. 

The  enormous  wealth  of  the  country  is  also  laid 
open  to  the  exertions  which  the  nation,  by  its  system 
of  universal  free  education,  prepares  a  man  to  put 
forth.  Here  again,  no  doubt,  we  must  allow  for 
differences  between  ideal  and  actuality,  between 
theory  and  practice.  Yet  there  is  in  this  country  no 
landed  aristocracy,  no  privileged  caste  of  monopo- 
lists, authorized  to  stand  between  the  worker  and 
the  fruits  of  his  labours,  or  to  take  from  him  in  the 
name  of  ancient  privilege  or  consecrated  wrong  the 
wealth  that  his  efforts  have  created.  The  standard 
of  living  here  is  high;  and  if  prices  are  high,  so  too 
are  wages,  salaries  and  profits.  Taxation  is  low. 
There  are  no  costly  figureheads  to  maintain,  no 
irremovable  parasites  upon  the  industry  of  the  com- 
munity. Abuses,  of  course,  there  are;  yet  they  are 
only  such  as  arise  from  the  public's  unworthiness 
of  the  privileges  and  responsibilities  which  the  na- 
tion confers  upon  it.  But  it  lies  in  the  very  nature 
of  democracy  that  the  power  to  remedy  abuses  shall 
be  as  widespread  as  the  abuses  themselves.  The 
people  gets  the  government  it  deserves.  Where 
there  is  corruption  or  maladministration,  waste, 
parasitism  or  despoiling  of  the  public  funds,  the 
remedy  lies  with  that  same  electorate  whose  careless- 
ness or  lack  of  public  spirit  has  enabled  the  abuses 
to  occur.  If  coarse,  venal,  unenlightened  persons 
are  entrusted  with  important  posts  in  political  life 
or  the  civil  service,  as  they  often  are,  it  is  our  own 


PRIVILEGE  OF  NATURALIZATION     9 

fault;  without  our  consent  it  could  not  happen.  One 
should  not,  therefore,  institute  unfavourable  com- 
parisons between  America  and  other  countries,  be- 
cause in  some  particular  respects  the  standard  of 
civilization,  and  of  dignity,  patriotism  and  efficiency 
in  public  life,  is  higher  elsewhere  than  it  is  here. 
Where  else  is  the  antidote  as  widespread  as  the 
bane?  Where  else  can  an  admitted  evil  be  removed 
as  soon  as  the  people  recognize  that  it  is  an  evil, 
and  desire  to  remove  it?  Reforms  which  in  other 
countries  can  be  effected  only  by  revolution  can  be 
brought  about  here  at  any  moment,  by  the  simple 
and  peaceful  expedient  of  a  public  vote. 

And  this  leads  us  to  the  further  consideration, 
that  America  in  giving  her  citizenship  challenges 
the  recruit  to  aid  her  in  correcting  what  is  amiss  in 
her  present  organization.  With  sincere  humility  she 
asks  him  to  contribute  whatever  he  may  have  or  may 
obtain  of  character  and  insight  to  the  upbuilding  of 
the  more  perfect  Republic  that  is  to  be. 

What  could  be  more  unreasonable  than  to  expect 
in  this  recently  settled  land  the  finished  grace,  the 
mature  poise,  the  deeply  ingrained  culture  of  coun- 
tries that  have  been  loved  by  an  uninterrupted  suc- 
cession of  generations,  and  enriched  with  the  prod- 
ucts of  their  labour  and  leisure,  for  many  hundreds 
of  years?  Until  four  short  centuries  ago,  no  white 
man's  foot  had  touched  the  soil  of  what  is  now  the 
American  Republic.  For  three  centuries  after  its 
discovery,  it  was  settled  by  tiny  handfuls  of  people, 
who  for  the  most  part  had  been  denied  liberty  and 
opportunity  in  the  lands  of  their  birth:  otherwise 


lo     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

they  would  not  have  needed  to  come  here  and  un- 
dertake the  desperate  task  of  pitting  their  inex- 
perience and  their  miserably  inadequate  resources 
against  the  vast  hostility  of  an  untamed  continent. 
During  the  last  hundred  years,  the  ever-increasing 
millions  of  natives  and  newcomers  have  poured  an 
incalculable  sum  of  energy  and  labour  into  the  work 
of  transforming  a  boundless  wilderness  into  a  gar- 
den. Nothing  in  the  world's  history  is  comparable 
with  what  has  been  done  here.  We  have  million- 
peopled  cities  where,  within  the  memory  of  men  yet 
living,  there  were  primeval  solitudes.  Trackless 
deserts  and  virgin  mountains  have  been  spanned  by 
magnificent  railways.  What  has  elsewhere  been  the 
growth  of  generations  and  centuries  has  here  been 
accomplished  in  years  and  decades. 

How  unreasonable,  then,  is  the  attitude  of  those 
who,  standing  aside  from  this  gigantic  task,  sneer  at 
America  for  what  she  has  not  yet  done,  without 
conceding  any  recognition  to  what  has  been  so  won- 
derfully accomplished!  When  one  looks  at  a  city 
like  Chicago,  the  mushroom  growth  of  a  short  four- 
score years,  the  marvel  is  that  any  set  of  human 
beings  can  in  such  a  time  have  produced  a  work  so 
stupendous.  It  is  in  large  part  raw,  ugly,  strident 
and  offensive;  but  so  in  large  part  are  the  cities  of 
the  Old  World,  which  have  had  centuries  of  wealth 
and  leisure  in  which  to  repair  the  errors  of  their 
youth.  But  Chicago  has  already  begun  to  put  on 
beauty,  to  shed  the  hasty  chrysalis-shell  which  it  at 
first  thrust  out  in  the  effort  to  establish  its  footing, 
and  to  devote  itself,  with  ever  greater  strenuousness 


PRIVILEGE  OF  NATURALIZATION     ii 

of  self-regeneration,  to  the  task  of  becoming  a  great 
as  well  as  a  large  city. 

And  yet,  when  every  allowance  has  been  made 
which  truth  can  demand  for  the  "  rawness "  of 
America,  is  not  the  opportunity  of  manipulating  this 
material  into  the  new  world  that  it  is  to  become,  the 
highest  privilege  which  could  be  conferred  on  any 
man?  In  the  Old  World  you  are  shown  the  beau- 
tiful or  stately  products  of  a  wondrous  past;  you 
cannot  withhold  your  admiration  for  the  works 
produced  by  men  of  old,  under  the  stimulus  of  in- 
spirations which  now  are  extinct.  In  the  New 
World,  you  are  paid  the  greater  compliment  of  being 
asked  to  contribute  to  the  inspiration  of  the  future, 
to  aid  in  creating  the  miracles  of  art  and  science 
that  unborn  men  shall  wonder  at.  Instead  of  being 
overawed  and  discouraged  by  the  sight  of  master- 
pieces which  the  present  cannot  rival,  you  are  stimu- 
lated to  creative  originality  by  the  sight  and  the  use 
of  resources  out  of  which  a  civilization  of  un- 
dreamed-of grandeur  is  to  be  hewn.  The  God  of 
America  does  not  say  to  you,  "  Stand  aside,  and  see 
Me  out  of  this  chaos  create  a  world  in  six  days." 
He  says,  "  Here  is  My  new  experiment,  as  yet  for 
the  most  part  without  form  and  void;  but  over  its 
face  My  spirit  broods,  and  by  your  help  and  through 
your  labour  it  shall  be  made  perfect."  Of  all  the 
privileges  of  American  citizenship,  this  is  the  most 
inspiring  and  the  most  beneficent. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE   DUTY   OF   NATURALIZATION 

THERE  are  in  this  country  great  numbers  of 
men  of  foreign  nationality,  who  have  lived 
here  for  many  years  and  who  expect  to  remain  here 
all  their  lives,  and  yet  have  not  become  citizens  of 
the  Republic,  nor  have  any  intention  of  doing  so. 
Thousands  of  these  men  are  married,  often  to  wives 
of  American  birth  who  have  forfeited  their  nation- 
ality by  their  union  with  foreigners;  and  they  have 
children  who  will  never  know  any  other  home  but 
America.  Nevertheless  they  thrust  aside  the  sugges- 
tion that  they  should  renounce  their  allegiance  to 
lands  with  which  they  have  ceased  to  have  any  tie  of 
direct  intercourse,  and  tender  their  loyalty  to  the 
country  which  has  welcomed  them,  which  protects 
them,  and  which  offers  them  opportunities  for  the 
sake  of  which  it  was  worth  their  while  to  abandon 
their  native  homes  and  pitch  their  tents  here.  Are 
they  right  in  the  course  they  take,  or  are  they  neglect- 
ing a  great  duty? 

Now,  this  is  obviously  a  question  which  every 
man  must  settle  for  himself;  and  for  the  conduct  of 
some  of  these  men  there  undoubtedly  are  reasons 
which  would  command  our  respect  if  we  knew  what 
they  were.  It  is  difficult  to  discuss  the  matter  with- 
out seeming  to  cast  on  one's  neighbours  reflections 


THE  DUTY  OF  NATURALIZATION     13 

which  in  many  cases  are  assuredly  undeserved. 
Nevertheless,  since  in  the  case  of  those  who  intend 
this  country  to  be  the  permanent  home  of  them- 
selves and  their  children,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  their 
duty  to  offer  their  allegiance  to  the  nation,  I  must 
set  forth  my  reasons  for  holding  this  conviction, 
even  at  the  risk  of  seeming  to  cast  aspersions  upon 
those  who  do  not  act  as  I  have  done. 

It  is  not  possible  for  any  human  being  to  live 
without  a  supreme  loyalty,  save  at  the  cost  of  fatal 
deterioration  of  his  character.  Let  a  man  make  his 
private  ends  the  one  sovereign  object  of  all  his 
activities,  let  him  have  no  purpose  greater  than  his 
individual  gain,  or  that  of  his  immediate  family, 
and  It  must  follow  that  his  nature  will  shrink  and 
wither,  and  become  "  subdued  to  what  it  works  in, 
like  the  dyer's  hand."  It  Is  a  proven  fact  of  psychol- 
ogy, and  not  a  mere  theological  assertion,  that  in 
order  to  find  one's  life  one  must  lose  It,  and  that  the 
certain  way  to  lose  It  is  to  be  concerned  only  about 
finding  it.  Every  man  or  woman  who  for  years  has 
sacrificed  and  laboured  for  any  cause  that  seeks  to 
promote  the  general  good,  or  to  make  smoother  the 
pathway  of  posterity,  becomes  aware  of  a  vast,  in- 
definable difference  that  separates  him  or  her  from 
the  shrivelled  and  atrophied  person  who  has  cared 
only  for  "  miserable  aims  that  end  with  self."  Noth- 
ing can  be  more  pitiable  than  the  fate  of  the  person 
who  has  made  money-getting  the  sole  end  of  his 
career,  and  has  never  known  the  ecstasy  of  self- 
abandonment  for  a  super-personal  object. 

Now,  the  nation  in  which  one  is  born,  or  to  which 


14     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

one  has  sworn  allegiance,  is  and  must  always  re- 
main to  every  human  being  the  greatest  and  most 
commanding  sphere  of  immediate  duty.  It  is  quite 
true  that  we  have  a  duty  to  humanity  at  large;  but 
It  is  no  less  true  that  in  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  cases,  the  only  way  in  which  a  man  can  discharge 
this  duty  is  by  working  for  the  moral,  intellectual, 
or  even  material  advancement  of  his  own  nation. 
Nowhere  is  this  clearer  than  in  the  case  of  America, 
regarded  in  the  light  of  its  historic  function  as  a 
land  of  refuge  for  the  oppressed  of  all  the  world. 
What  could  be  plainer  than  that  the  main  duty  of  an 
American  to  these  oppressed  refuge-seekers  is  to 
make  this  country  correspond  to  the  ideal  vision 
which  its  standards  and  professions  have  engen- 
dered in  their  minds?  Not  one  American  in  ten 
thousand,  even  in  war-time,  can  do  anything  directly 
to  ameliorate  the  lot  of  the  unfortunate  in  Russia  or 
Galicia  or  the  Balkans;  but,  by  improving  conditions 
at  home,  by  making  freedom  not  only  an  ideal  but  a 
reality,  by  securing  substantial  economic  as  well  as 
political  justice  for  all  in  America,  every  citizen  can 
serve  those  to  whom  America  is  an  example  and 
potentially  a  harbour  of  refuge. 

Now  if  a  settler  in  this  country  lets  his  loyalty  to 
the  land  of  his  birth  wither  and  die  out,  and  does 
not,  by  his  own  free  act,  assume  an  equivalent  loy- 
alty to  the  United  States,  he  is  himself  the  loser, 
and  America  gains  nothing  by  his  residence  here. 
All  her  privileges,  except  those  which  (very  rightly) 
are  reserved  for  citizens,  are  given  to  him.  He 
greedily  accepts  and  exploits  them  to  the  uttermost. 


THE  DUTY  OF  NATURALIZATION     15 

Yet  It  does  not  seem  to  him  at  all  his  duty  to  tender 
anything  in  return,  save  what  the  State  extorts  from 
him  in  taxes.  But  if  such  a  sentiment  became  wide- 
spread, If  the  whole  population,  or  anything  like  a 
majority  of  it,  were  to  become  Infected  with  this 
sordid  and  thankless  spirit,  how  long  could  America 
remain  the  sanctuary  of  the  oppressed?  How  long 
could  it  continue  to  deserve  that  name?  The  Re- 
public became  the  land  of  refuge  because  men  who 
loved  it  laboured  and  gave  their  lives  to  make  it  so. 
The  liberty  they  won  for  us  has  made  it  possible  for 
the  self-seeker  to  act  as  he  does  to-day.  But  his 
spirit,  if  it  became  general,  would  in  time  destroy 
the  heritage  by  which  he  profits.  Democratic  insti- 
tutions in  themselves  are  nothing  but  machinery; 
it  is  only  the  purpose  for  which  the  machinery  is 
used  that  can  give  It  beauty  and  dignity  or  make  it 
holy.  If  they  who  owe  everything  to  America  refuse 
to  love  and  serve  her,  she  must  inevitably,  in  time, 
become  unworthy  of  the  love  and  service  of  others. 
It  Is  only  loyalty  that  can  make  a  nation  great.  It 
is  only  by  being  loved  that  a  country  can  become 
lovable.  And  the  thousands  who  prey  upon  Amer- 
ica and  yet  contemn  her;  who  make  their  homes 
here,  and  yet  reserve  the  allegiance  of  their  hearts 
for  the  other  lands  which  they  have  deserted;  — 
how  dare  they  scoff  at  America  for  not  being  all  that 
she  should  be,  when  it  is  their  ingratitude,  more 
than  anything  else,  that  prevents  her  from  fulfilling 
to  the  utmost  her  ideals? 

One  could  not  venture  to  speak  thus  publicly  of 
one's  personal  reasons  for  coming  to  this  country, 


1 6     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

were  it  not  that  the  commonplaceness  of  one's  case 
makes  it  typical  of  the  situation  of  thousands  of 
others.  There  was  no  coercion  exercised  upon  me. 
In  my  native  land  I  enjoyed  political  and  religious 
freedom;  I  was  able  to  earn  a  fairly  satisfactory 
livelihood.  It  was  by  my  own  free  decision  that  I 
expatriated  myself.  Coming  here  first  for  a  holiday, 
and  afterwards  for  a  short  professional  tour,  and 
finding  that  for  such  work  as  mine  there  was  a  better 
field  here  than  in  England,  I  accepted  the  flattering 
invitation  extended  to  me  by  my  Chicago  friends  to 
return  and  dwell  among  them.  Inasmuch  as  I  was 
not  expelled  by  tyranny  from  my  mother  country, 
I  did  not  fall  back  upon  America  as  a  mere  necessit5^ 
I  am  in  the  position  of  a  man  who  has  married  a 
wife,  and  who,  having  had  every  opportunity  of 
knowing  her  and  her  family  beforehand,  cannot  pre- 
tend that  he  was  deceived  either  as  to  her  character 
and  social  position  or  as  to  those  of  her  relations. 
Or  I  am  like  a  man  who  has  bought  a  house  which 
he  had  first  surveyed.  He  knows  how  the  house  is 
constructed,  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of 
its  site  and  the  aspects  of  the  neighbourhood.  If 
he  is  not  satisfied  he  does  not  buy;  but  when  he  has 
bought,  he  has  no  right  to  complain  of  matters  about 
which  he  was  fully  informed  beforehand. 

Why  then  did  I  deliberately  choose  America  and 
forsake  England?  Why  did  I  come  out  of  my  coun- 
try, and  from  my  kindred,  and  from  my  father's 
house,  unto  the  land  which  the  circumstances  of  my 
experience  had  shown  me?  Not  for  abstract  or 
fanciful  reasons,  but  upon  the  most  solidly  practical 


THE  DUTY  OF  NATURALIZATION     17 

considerations.  I  came  here  because  my  work  is 
more  in  demand  and  is  better  rewarded  here  than  in 
England;  because  opportunities  of  initiative  and 
self-development  are  open  to  me  here  as  they  were 
not  in  the  Old  Country;  because  class  distinctions 
and  considerations  of  birth  or  ancestry  do  not  here 
prevent  one  from  gaining  any  success  which  one  may 
have  energy  or  skill  to  deserve.  I  came  here,  too, 
because  in  this  country  I  could  secure  a  better  educa- 
tion for  my  children,  and  give  them  a  more  auspi- 
cious start  in  life,  than  England  seemed  willing  to 
provide. 

In  short,  America  is  more  generous  to  me,  in  re- 
gard to  all  my  immediate  interests  and  duties,  than 
was  my  native  land.  It  is  no  ingratitude  to  England 
that  makes  me  say  this.  I  hav^e  always  loved  her, 
and  I  always  shall;  for,  though  a  man  must  needs 
forsake  father  and  mother  that  he  may  cleave  to  his 
wife,  it  does  not  follow  that  he  need  cease  to  love 
his  parents  or  to  look  back  with  gratitude  to  them. 
England  has  her  faults,  as  every  nation  necessarily 
must  have ;  but  I  did  not  abandon  her  on  account  of 
her  faults,  nor  yet  because  I  was  naive  enough  to 
think  America  faultless.  The  ideals  England  has 
taught  me  are  noble  ones;  and  if  at  times  I  must 
criticize  her,  I  can  only  do  so  by  applying  the  stand- 
ards of  moral  judgment  which  she  herself  has  in- 
stilled into  me. 

But,  having  made  my  choice,  with  what  conscience 
can  I  do  less  than  meet  America  in  the  spirit  in 
which  she  has  met  me?  How  can  I  make  of  this 
land   a   mere   convenience,    and  say,    in   the   quaint 


1 8     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

phrase  of  the  Psalmist,  "  Moab  is  my  washpot"? 
Where  would  be  my  honour  if  I  came  here  like  a 
parasite,  to  suck  my  sustenance  from  this  soil  and 
then  return  to  enjoy  it  to  the  land  whence  I  came? 
With  what  decency  could  I  live  here,  availing  my- 
self of  the  freedom  of  republican  institutions  and 
thriving  under  them,  and  at  the  same  time  sneering 
at  America  for  the  imperfection  of  her  institutions, 
and  praising  by  contrast  those  of  the  country  which 
I  had  left?  Such  conduct  is  in  the  highest  degree 
snobbish  and  ungentlemanly ;  —  not  to  call  it  by  any 
severer  term. 

Consider,  further,  the  plight  of  the  person  who 
has  allowed  his  native  allegiance  to  lapse,  and  has 
not  assumed  allegiance  to  the  land  of  his  adoption. 
He  is  that  most  forlorn  and  pitiable  of  all  creatures, 
the  man  without  a  country.  He  is  an  uprooted  tree, 
an  extracted  tooth,  a  divorce,  an  organ  that  has  lost 
its  function,  and  therewith  lost  its  meaning  and  its 
reason  for  existence.  For  a  man  does  not  take  his 
character,  his  impress,  his  individuality,  from  the 
world  as  a  whole;  he  takes  it  from  the  nation  that 
gave  birth  to  his  soul  and  body.  He  is  an  epitome 
of  the  vast,  continuous  life  of  his  people.  His  per- 
sonality resumes  and  carries  forward  that  of  all  his 
ancestors,  through  the  storied  centuries  that  lie  be- 
hind him.  The  old  saying,  "  Homo  sum  "  —  "I 
am  a  man  "  —  is  at  best  not  more  than  a  half-truth; 
and  he  who  used  it  should  have  said,  "  Civis  Ro- 
manus  sum  "  —  "I  am  a  Roman  citizen."  For  you 
never  see  a  human  being  who  is  purely  and  simply 
human;   you   see   men   who    are   Romans,    Greeks, 


THE  DUTY  OF  NATURALIZATION     19 

Jews;  English,  Italians,  Frenchmen,  Russians. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  unqualified,  undifferen- 
tiated humanity.  Or,  rather,  humanity  in  that  sense 
is  an  abstraction,  —  an  idea  in  the  mind,  formed  by 
isolating  in  imagination  what  cannot  be  isolated 
objectively:  the  common  element  in  all  people  of  all 
nationalities.  The  notion  that  the  time  will  ever 
come  when  all  that  distinguishes  nations  from  each 
other  will  be  obliterated,  and  men  the  world  over 
will  be  cut  to  the  same  pattern,  use  the  same  speech, 
inherit  the  same  traditions  and  cherish  an  identical 
loyalty,  is  a  wild,  impossible  dream.  —  But  of  this 
we  must  speak  hereafter. 

For  the  present,  it  suffices  to  remind  ourselves 
of  the  truth  that  a  man  cannot  effectually  pull  up  his 
roots  from  his  native  soil  without  promptly  sinking 
them  anew  in  the  soil  of  his  new  homeland.  The 
life  of  the  spirit  must  be  fed  from  some  source; 
and  a  man's  loyalty  (however  he  may  misjudge  him- 
self when  he  dreams  that  he  has  ceased  to  have  any) 
is  in  truth  given,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  either 
to  one  people  or  to  another.  One  may  remain  un- 
aware of  this  for  half  a  lifetime;  but  our  oblivious- 
ness of  a  fact  does  not  destroy  the  fact.  Very  few 
people  consciously  remember  that  the  atmosphere 
has  weight;  still  fewer  could  tell  you  exactly  with 
how  many  pounds'  pressure  it  thrusts  down  upon  us 
at  sea-level.  Yet  this  utterly  ignored  fact  is  the 
most  absolutely  unescapable  influence  of  our  life; 
never  for  a  single  second  can  we  withdraw  ourselves 
from  it. 

And  so  it  is  with  one's  national  loyalty.     It  may 


20     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

He  buried  In  oblivion  through  years  of  self-centred 
absorption  in  money-getting  or  the  pursuit  of  pleas- 
ure, or  of  dreaming  in  the  Lotus-land  of  cosmopoli- 
tanism. But  at  last  the  hour  will  strike  when  there 
will  come  a  clash,  a  conflict,  a  sharp  Issue  on  which 
one  must  decide.  Then  the  buried  flame  will  re- 
kindle itself;  the  volcano  will  prove  that  It  is  not 
extinct;  It  will  blaze  forth  anew  through  the  cold 
embers  of  affection  and  Instinct.  And  the  man 
whose  Indifference,  or  whose  mistaken  theory,  has 
made  him  think  of  himself  as  neither  Jew  nor  Greek, 
but  a  dispassionate,  cosmopolitan  humanitarian,  or 
a  solely  self-regarding  individualist,  will  become 
aware  that  he  Is  after  all  a  patriot,  a  member  of  a 
nation,  one  In  will  and  devotion  with  a  whole  people. 
Then,  perchance,  he  may  find  that  his  resurrected 
heart  belongs  to  the  nation  that  he  has  forsaken, 
and  that  has  In  consequence  forsaken  him;  and  woe 
to  him  In  that  hour! 

With  what  dramatic,  with  what  tragic  Intensity 
has  this  truth  been  brought  home  to  myriads  of  men, 
the  world  over,  In  connection  with  the  present  war! 
How  were  the  anti-national  theories  shattered,  and 
the  Icy  Indifferences  broken  up,  by  the  swelling  of  the 
great  deeps!  What  has  become  of  the  doctrine  of 
those  Socialists  who  thought  that  patriotism  was 
only  a  decoy-duck  held  by  exploiters  before  the  eyes 
of  the  working  people?  Thousands  of  men  who  for 
many  a  year  had  been  thinking  and  proclaiming 
this,  have  now  by  their  death  given  the  lie  to  the 
teaching  they  had  proclaimed.  The  Idea  that  the 
real  division  among  men  is  along  the  line  of  class, 


THE  DUTY  OF  NATURALIZATION     21 

and  not  of  nationality,  —  that  a  worker  or  capitalist 
in  one  country  has  more  in  common  with  the  men  of 
his  own  class  abroad  than  with  the  other  classes 
among  his  own  people,  —  which  had  been  drilled 
into  the  minds  of  the  European  working  classes  by 
the  followers  of  Karl  Marx,  vanished  like  a  thawed 
icicle  the  moment  there  came  that  awful  voice  which 
called  to  the  deeps  of  human  nature.  "  Your  coun- 
try "  was  the  word  of  power,  even  to  the  men  who 
had  believed  that  one  country  is  as  good  (or  as  bad) 
as  another,  and  that  their  loyalty  was  due  in  equal 
measure  to  all  the  world. 

No !  the  cosmopolitans  misunderstand  themselves. 
When  Paine,  the  stalwart  pioneer  of  liberty  alike 
in  politics  and  religion,  declared  that  the  world  was 
his  country,  he  was  uttering  a  piece  of  doctrinaire 
sentimentality,  not  a  rational  conviction.  Neither 
he  nor  any  other  man  was  ever  able  to  live  out  that 
facile  but  impracticable  sophism.  He  did  not  really 
mean  to  insult  his  American  hearers  by  saying  that 
they  were  no  more  to  him  than  the  Kaffirs  or  Hotten- 
tots, and  that  the  summit  of  Fuji  Yama  was  as  dear 
to  his  heart  as  Beacon  Hill  or  the  site  of  Independ- 
ence Hall.  That  was  what  he  said,  m  effect;  but  he 
did  not  mean  it,  because  he  could  not.  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  in  lines  too  hackneyed  to  be  quotable,  was 
literally  right  in  saying  that  only  a  man  whose  soul 
is  dead  can  cease  to  feel  the  thrill  of  the  words, 
"  My  native  land."  Paine  was  a  trueborn  English- 
man. That  is  why,  like  all  true  Englishmen,  he  had 
grown  to  hate  King  George  III  and  the  system  of 
Prussian  tyranny  which  that  pett>'-souled  alien  tried 


22     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

to  impose  on  England  and  America.  The  Ideals  he 
began  to  express  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in  America 
were  English  ideals ;  for,  be  it  remembered,  the  de- 
mands embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence are  as  English  in  origin  and  spirit  as  the  lan- 
guage in  which  they  are  expressed. 

It  is  clear,  then,  to  me,  that  every  immigrant  who 
intends  to  make  this  country  his  permanent  home  is 
bound  in  honour  to  accept  the  privilege  of  incorpo- 
ration into  the  American  Republic.  It  is  his  duty 
both  to  the  nation  and  to  himself  to  do  this.  If  he 
refuses  it,  he  is  rather  shabbily  sponging  on  Amer- 
ica. He  is  a  bad  guest,  a  thankless  and  parasitic 
intruder.  But  he  is  also  doing  a  grievous  harm  to 
himself.  He  has  lost  his  share  in  the  general  life  of 
his  native  land,  and  has  no  right  to  take  any  in  the 
country  of  his  condescending  half-adoption.  In  case 
of  war  between  America  and  his  old  country,  he 
finds  himself  an  alien  enemy  in  the  one,  with  the 
doors  of  the  other  closed  against  him.  If  he  thinks 
that  there  are  things  amiss  in  America  which  he 
might  help  to  rectify,  he  has  not  acquired  the  right 
of  offering  his  counsel  or  criticism.  With  what 
grace,  indeed,  could  he  express  himself  upon  such 
issues?  America's  answer,  felt  if  not  uttered,  would 
be:  "No!  You  are  using  me  and  exploiting  me, 
but  you  do  not  intend  to  blend  yourself  with  my  life 
nor  to  share  in  my  upward  struggles.  I  am  a  con- 
venience to  you;  you  prefer  to  give  your  loyalty 
elsewhere.  My  effort  at  building  up  a  nation,  mani- 
fold yet  one,  recruited  from  all  the  world  yet  united 
by  liberty  and  democracy,  does  not  inspire  your  rev- 


THE  DUTY  OF  NATURALIZATION     23 

erence  or  enlist  your  allegiance.  My  Institutions 
are  not  good  enough  for  your  sensitive  spirit.  So 
be  it;  but  do  not  presume  to  affront  me  with  your 
advice  or  criticism.  Do  I  not  know,  as  well  as  you 
can  tell  me,  that  there  are  many  things  amiss  in  my 
household?  But  these  shall  be  corrected  by  those 
who  love  me  well  enough  to  unite  with  me  in  spite 
of  my  defects,  and  who  have  enough  faith  in  my 
spirit  and  my  future  to  make  of  me  not  only  a  place 
of  exploitation  but  the  object  of  their  dearest 
allegiance." 


CHAPTER    III 

WHAT   CAN   I   GIVE   TO   AMERICA? 

THIS  country  is  pre-eminently  the  land  of  the 
doctrine  of  Rights.  The  conflict  which  led  to 
its  separate  establishment  was  inspired  by  a  sense 
of  violated  justice,  and  the  assertion  of  rights  is 
made  primary  and  principal  in  the  historical  docu- 
ment by  which  the  Colonies  declared  themselves  an 
independent  nation.  In  that  composition  the  word 
"  rights  "  occurs  nine  times,  and  the  word  "  duty  " 
appears  only  once,  in  a  clause  in  which  It  is  made 
subordinate  to  a  claim  of  rights.  The  tradition  thus 
inaugurated  has  continued  ever  since  to  character- 
ize the  American  spirit;  and,  although  no  nation  in 
history  has  evinced  in  its  actions  a  finer  sense  of  col- 
lective duty,  or  had  (considering  Its  very  short  life- 
time) a  more  illustrious  roster  of  sons  who  have 
freely  given  their  lives  to  the  sustaining  of  its  na- 
tional ideals,  it  yet  remains  true  that  in  the  thought 
of  the  average  American  his  rights  come  first  and 
his  duties  a  somewhat  laggard  second.  He  thinks  of 
the  Government,  the  army  and  the  navy  as  existing 
for  the  sake  of  securing  and  safeguarding  his  rights. 
The  members  of  the  legislatures  in  State  and  nation 
are  his  servants,  paid  to  give  effect  to  his  will. 

But  this  is  a  one-sided  and  only  half-true  way  of 
regarding  the  situation.     It  has  not  been  sufficiently 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     25 

considered  that  the  circumstances  which  gave  rise 
to  the  conflict  with  King  George  III,  and  which  in- 
evitably coloured  and  toned  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, were  exceptional  and  transient,  and  that 
the  claims  of  right  in  that  document  are  not  fitted, 
and  vjere  never  intended,  to  be  the  foundation-stones 
of  a  permanent  and  complete  doctrine  of  the  rela- 
tions of  men  in  society  under  normal  conditions. 
Although  it  is  natural  in  times  of  war  and  revolution 
for  claims  of  right  to  be  thrust  forward,  it  is  no  less 
natural  and  necessary  that  when,  by  the  issue  of  the 
conflict,  the  rights  in  dispute  have  been  secured,  the 
emphasis  should  be  transferred  to  those  Duties  of 
Man  from  which  all  rights  are  necessarily  deriva- 
tive, and  upon  which  they  are  dependent. 

The  primacy  of  our  duties  over  our  rights  is  a 
truth  which  does  not  need  any  very  elaborate  or 
subtle  argument  for  its  demonstration.  The  fact 
that  a  man  is  born  at  all  is  the  evidence  of  an  effort, 
so  to  speak,  on  the  part  of  the  universe,  which  began 
millions  of  years  ago  and  has  needed  the  co-opera- 
tion not  only  of  all  the  forms  of  life,  from  its  very 
beginnings,  but  also  of  the  vast  energies  of  the  inor- 
ganic world.  This  far-drawn  cosmic  pedigree  of 
ours  is  vividly  described  in  a  passage  in  Henry 
Dnimmond's  book  entitled  "  The  Ascent  of  Man," 
from  which  I  may  be  permitted  to  quote  a  few 
sentences : 

Those  who  know  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Mark's  will  re- 
member how  this  noblest  of  the  Stones  of  Venice  owes  its 
greatness  to  the  patient  hands  of  centuries  and  centuries  of 
workers,  how  every  quarter  of  the  globe  has  been  spoiled 


26     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

of  its  treasures  to  dignify  this  single  shrine.  But  he  who 
ponders  over  the  more  ancient  temple  of  the  human  body 
will  find  imagination  fail  him  as  he  tries  to  think  from  what 
remote  and  mingled  sources,  from  what  lands,  seas,  climates, 
atmospheres,  its  various  parts  have  been  called  together, 
and  by  what  innumerable  contributory  creatures,  swimming, 
creeping,  flying,  climbing,  each  of  its  several  members  was 
wrought  and  perfected.  .  .  . 

Even  to  make  the  first  cell  possible,  stellar  space  required 
to  be  swept  of  matter,  suns  must  needs  be  broken  up  and 
planets  cool,  the  agents  of  geology  labour  millennium  after 
millennium  at  the  unfinished  earth  to  prepare  a  material 
resting-place  for  the  coming  guest.  Consider  all  this,  and 
judge  if  Creation  could  have  a  sublimer  meaning,  or  the 
human  race  possess  a  more  splendid  genesis. 

But  even  in  this  eloquent  passage,  the  specific 
basis  of  duty  Is  not  made  clear.  Whatever  we  may 
owe  to  the  unconscious  forces  of  nature,  the  fact 
that  they  are  unconscious  makes  It  Impossible  for 
any  relation  of  the  nature  of  duty  to  exist  between 
us  and  them,  or  for  us  to  feel  towards  them  any 
sense  of  gratitude,  save  by  the  exercise  of  poetic 
imagination.  When,  however,  out  of  the  Interplay 
of  mindless  energies  manifested  In  the  suns  and 
stars,  the  beginnings  of  conscious,  self-directing  life 
had  emerged,^  the  situation  underwent  a  radical 
change.  Social  evolution  would  have  remained  for 
ever  Impossible,  had  not  man  from  the  very  begin- 
ning accepted  the  stern  condition  that  he  should  not 
live  merely  for  himself.     In  proportion  as  he  rose 

^  The  philosophic  reader  is  requested  kindly  to  note  that  this  state- 
ment does  not  involve  any  admission  that  consciousness  is  a  product  of 
matter  or  physical  energy,  but  only  that  certain  determinations  of  these 
are  necessary  conditions  of  its  manifestation. 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     27 

above  animallty,  his  activities  have  ever  been  for- 
ward-looking and  other-regarding.  He  has  pitted 
himself  against  the  hostile  forces  of  nature  in  the 
interests  of  wife  and  child,  of  tribe  and  nation. 
Our  life  to-day  would  have  been  impossible  but  for 
the  unrecorded  struggles  of  the  cave-men  and  the 
ploughing  and  sowing  of  the  nameless,  forgotten 
generations. 

When,  therefore,  one  speaks  of  duty  coming  first, 
far  from  stating  a  mere  arbitrary  dogma,  one  is  only 
expressing  in  a  shorthand  phrase  the  indisputable 
fact  that  each  human  being  owes  to  mankind  a  debt 
far  vaster  than  any  activity  even  of  the  longest  and 
most  gifted  life  can  possibly  discharge.  And  when 
to  this  we  add  the  fact  that  the  rare  gift  of  the  genius 
is  itself  something  that  has  been  conferred  upon  him 
by  the  human  race,  —  something  which  he  could  not 
and  did  not  create  for  himself,  —  the  convincing- 
ness of  the  plea  is  rendered  overwhelming. 

This  being  the  case,  I  do  not  feel  it  necessary  to 
apologize  for  discussing  what  the  immigrant  can 
give  to  America  before  raising  the  question  of  what 
America  can  give  to  him.  My  contention  is  that 
anybody  who  rightly  considers  the  circumstances  of 
human  life  and  is  not  a  monster  of  egotism  or  in- 
gratitude, ought  to  approach  his  country  in  the  spirit 
that  asks  "  What  can  I  give?  "  rather  than  "  What 
can  I  get?  "  Patriotism,  indeed,  has  for  its  basis  a 
recognition,  often  instinctive  and  unconscious,  of  the 
facts  I  have  here  briefly  indicated.  To  each  individ- 
ual person  the  nation  stands  as  the  representative 
of  humanity  at  large;  and  because  our  immediate 


28     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

debt  is  to  the  nation,  and  because,  moreover,  it  is  to 
the  nation  only  (as  a  general  rule)  that  we  are  able 
to  render  any  direct  assistance,  it  is  right  that  the 
service  of  our  country  should  be  the  channel  in  which 
our  activities  should  run. 

As  in  the  following  paragraphs  I  shall  occasion- 
ally be  constrained  to  speak  somewhat  personally, 
I  desire  to  guard  myself  against  the  supposition  that 
I  am  a  ridiculous  egotist,  or  that  I  have  any  excessive 
idea  of  the  contribution  I  can  make  to  the  well-being 
of  the  Republic.  Obviously,  one  has  no  right  to 
speak  for  immigrants  in  general,  since  the  very  value 
of  immigration  into  a  democracy  lies  in  the  fact  that 
each  group  of  different  national  or  racial  origin  may 
contribute  something  which  the  others  cannot  give. 
If  I  were  a  Russian  or  a  Greek,  I  should  naturally 
have  to  answer  the  question  which  this  chapter  asks 
in  a  very  different  fashion.  This  portion  of  my 
book,  accordingly,  cannot  pretend  to  apply  to  immi- 
grants of  other  than  British  origin,  except  in  so  far 
as  the  duties  of  citizens  are  the  same  universally, 
and  except  that  it  may  possibly  induce  others  to  put 
to  themselves  the  same  question  that  I  am  proposing 
to  myself  and  to  all  Americans  who  hail  from 
Britain. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  all  newcomers  can  contribute 
to  America  their  labour;  and  any  study  of  the  in- 
dustrial and  physical  development  of  the  country 
during  the  last  hundred  years  will  show  how  great 
their  contribution  in  this  kind  has  been  and  con- 
tinues to  be.  But  not  less  important  —  nay,  more 
important  —  than  the  actual  work  is  the  sense  of 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     29 

the  social  ends  which  all  honourable  labour  sub- 
serves. It  is  these  alone  which  can  give  it  dignity 
and  make  of  it  a  means  for  the  education  and  spirit- 
ual development  of  the  labourer.  The  ploughman 
and  his  horse  are  both  workers;  but  the  difference 
between  them  is  that  the  ploughman  has  (or  can 
have,  and  therefore  ought  to  have)  a  vision  of  the 
distant  populations  who  are  to  be  sustained  by  the 
produce  of  his  task,  whereas  the  horse  has  presum- 
ably no  consciousness  of  the  ends  which  he  is  pro- 
moting. Not  the  least  of  the  tragedies  of  modern 
life,  and  especially  of  the  life  of  the  labouring  class, 
is  the  fact  that  their  work  is  so  often  gone  about  in 
a  dull,  routine  spirit,  without  any  enlarging  con- 
sciousness of  the  place  of  each  man's  task  in  the 
common  life,  and  the  remote  and  splendid  goals 
toward  which  it  is  directed.  We  seldom  or  never 
think  of  ordinary  wage-work  as  a  means  of  educa- 
tion. We  think  of  the  man  as  a  mere  tool  or  in- 
strument. We  speak  of  him  only  as  a  "  hand,"  and 
of  workers  collectively  as  "  help."  We  thus  betray 
the  fact  that  we  are  unconscious  of  the  worker  as 
an  end  in  himself,  or  of  his  work  as  a  means  to  the 
enrichment  of  his  life  and  the  development  of  his 
distinctively  human  powers.  If  I  am  to  be  a  worker, 
I  must  insist,  as  a  human  being,  that  I  be  permitted 
not  only  to  exercise  the  strength  of  my  body  and 
the  craft  of  my  hands,  but  to  enter  with  my  will  and 
intellect  into  the  purpose  of  my  work.  Not  only 
has  nobody  a  right  to  degrade  me  to  the  level  of  a 
mere  tool,  but  I  have  no  right  to  suffer  myself  to 
be  thus  degraded.     The  immigrant,  who  gives  his 


30     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

labour,  may  render  to  the  commonwealth  a  press- 
ingly  needed  service  by  contributing  also  the  con- 
ception of  labour  as  a  means  to  the  common  ends 
of  the  nation,  and  therefore  as  a  means  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  higher  human  attributes  of  the 
labourer  himself;  for  these  alone  constitute  the  true 
wealth  of  a  democracy. 

2.  Every  man,  moreover,  who  swears  allegiance 
to  the  United  States  must  do  so  with  the  clear 
consciousness  that  that  oath  obliges  him,  should 
the  need  arise,  to  offer  his  life  in  the  service  of  the 
country  against  any  foreign  enemy.  It  is  perhaps 
in  this  connection  that  the  perfunctory  manner  in 
which  the  naturalization  ceremony  has  hitherto  been 
carried  out  is  most  to  be  regretted,  since  the  solem- 
nity of  the  obligation  thus  assumed  is  apt  to  escape 
the  attention  of  the  person  who  undertakes  it.  Your 
vow  to  the  United  States  is  a  vow  that  in  case  of 
need  {which  need  is  to  be  determined  not  by  you 
individually ,  but  by  the  constituted  authorities  of  the 
Republic)  you  are  ready  to  take  arms  against  the 
land  of  your  birth,  and  to  give  your  life  in  fighting 
for  America  against  those  who  have  hitherto  been 
your  fellow-countrymen.^  Bethink  yourself  care- 
fully of  this  tremendous  pledge,  and  face  the  situa- 
tion at  its  possible  worst  before  you  take  it.     If  you 


^  The  language  of  the  statute  governing  the  admission  of  aliens, 
though  somewhat  gauche,  is  decisive  on  this  point.  "He  [the  person 
naturaUzed]  will  support  and  defend  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the 
United  States  against  all  enemies,  foreign  and  domestic,  and  bear  true 
faith  and  allegiance  to  the  same."  Act  of  June  29,  1906,  §  IV,  par.  3. 
This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that  he  is  to  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance 
to  all  enemies,  foreign  and  domestic.  It  may  seem  to  say  so;  but  that 
is  only  the  playful  little  way  of  our  legislators. 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     31 

are  not  ready  to  do  this,  you  have  no  right  to  take 
the  oath  of  naturalization,  for  you  will  be  forswear- 
ing yourself.  When  such  an  exigency  arises,  as  for 
vast  numbers  of  American  citizens  it  lately  arose, 
those  who  are  faced  with  so  awful  a  responsibility 
are  entitled  to  our  fullest  sympathy;  and  every  im- 
migrant who  takes  the  oath  may  well  pray  that  he 
shall  never  be  called  upon  to  fulfil  this  most  tragic 
of  all  freely  chosen  duties. 

Nevertheless,  it  must  be  insisted  that  whenever 
the  crisis  does  arise,  no  foreign-born  citizen  shall 
shirk  his  duty,  or  be  permitted  to  pretend  that  he 
did  not  know  to  what  he  was  committed.  The  terms 
of  his  contract  with  America  are  as  clear  and  ex- 
plicit as  language  can  make  them;  and  if  a  man  is 
not  willing  to  carry  out  the  contract,  he  ought  never 
to  enter  into  it.  He  is  not  compelled  to  be  natural- 
ized, and  it  is  inexcusable  in  him  to  hesitate  or  refuse 
his  duties  as  an  American,  after  he  has,  freely  and 
with  open  eyes,  made  his  final  and  irrevocable  choice. 

I  am  a  naturalized  immigrant.  I  was  a  British 
subject,  but  I  am  so  no  more;  for  I  have,  with  full 
consciousness  of  the  import  of  my  act,  "  renounced 
for  ever  all  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  any  foreign 
prince,  potentate,  state  or  sovereignty,  and  particu- 
larly to  George  V,  King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land." This  means  that  if,  in  the  whirligig  of  inter- 
national politics,  a  state  of  war  should  arise  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  I  am  sternly 
bound  in  honour  to  give  my  service,  whenever  called 
upon,  to  sustain  the  cause  of  America  against  Great 
Britain.     It  may  mean  that  I  shall  have  to  engage 


32     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

in  murderous  contest  with  my  own  brother  or  with 
my  oldest  friends.  If  so,  I  must  set  my  teeth  and 
go  through  with  it.  Or  it  may  mean  that  the  Re- 
public will  ask  my  sons  of  me  for  the  same  grim 
duty.  That,  if  anything  can,  would  be  a  heavier 
burden  than  the  other;  but  again  I  must  neither 
hesitate  nor  countenance  any  hesitation  on  their 
part.  For  the  choice  of  nationality  is  one  of  the 
irrevocable  and  irreversible  finalities  of  life.  It  is 
Either-Or;  if  you  are  an  American,  you  can  he 
nothing  else.  Other  Englishmen  before  me  have 
made  this  choice,  and  have  not  failed  in  their  duty 
when  the  time  of  testing  came.  Were  not  "  Com- 
mon Sense  "  and  "  The  Crisis  "  written  by  an  Eng- 
lishman? Thousands  of  men  of  German  origin, 
too,  are  at  this  moment  proving  that  human  nature 
is  equal  to  the  heavy  demand.  Give,  then,  your 
pledge  to  the  Republic,  with  open  eyes.  Do  all  that 
a  man  honourably  can  to  prevent  war,  and  especially 
the  tragedy  of  war  between  the  two  great  English- 
speaking  democracies.  But  if,  in  spite  of  reason, 
in  spite  of  all  that  should  make  for  the  fraternal 
co-operation  of  peoples,  such  a  tragedy  should  occur 
in  your  time,  remember  to  what  obligations  you 
have  unchangeably  committed  yourself. 

3.  A  third  gift  which  the  immigrant  may  bring 
is  that  of  faith  in  the  institutions  of  America,  despite 
the  defects  and  perversions  of  their  present  work- 
ing. And  it  may  be  that  the  experience  of  an  Eng- 
lishman is  peculiarly  calculated  to  prepare  him  for 
this  service.  For  he  has  known  what  it  is  to  live 
under  democratic  laws  and  customs,  to  enjoy  and 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     33 

profit  by  them,  and  recognize  them  as  blessings,  even 
though  at  the  same  time  he  were  in  constant  rebellion 
against  the  injustices  of  incomplete  democracy,  the 
tyrannies  of  aristocracy  and  capitalism  disguised 
under  democratic  trappings,  and  the  selfishness  and 
self-assertion  of  those  who  misuse  the  opportunities 
of  power  and  self-realization  which  democracy 
gives.  He  has  thus  learned  to  discriminate  between 
the  democratic  ideal  and  the  sometimes  unsatisfac- 
tory actualities  of  a  democratic  community.  He  is 
therefore  less  likely  than  others  may  be  to  take  the 
sins  and  stupidities  of  a  republic  as  a  proof  that 
republicanism  must  needs  be  sinful  and  stupid.  He 
knows  too  well  that,  with  the  best  constitution  in 
the  world,  the  actual  state  of  a  nation  will  still  de- 
pend, and  must  for  ever  depend,  upon  the  character 
and  capacity  of  its  citizens.  He  cannot  be  deceived 
by  the  frothy  platitudes  of  the  demagogue  or  the 
spread-eagleism  of  the  jingo.  He  knows  that  the 
idolatry  of  flags  and  phrases  may  be  to  the  full  as 
deceptive  and  pernicious  as  the  idolatry  of  crowns 
and  monarchs;  and  that  a  paper  Constitution  can  as 
readily  be  perverted  into  a  means  of  destroying  the 
very  things  it  was  intended  to  promote  as  can  the 
consuetudinary  prerogatives  of  a  House  of  Lords  or 
an  established  Church. 

For  men  whose  younger  years  have  been  spent 
under  the  rule  of  eflScient  autocracies,  It  is  a  not  un- 
natural, though  a  wholly  erroneous  inference,  that 
the  waste,  carelessness,  peculation  and  general  In- 
efficiency often  to  be  observed  In  republics  {e.g.,  in 
France  and  America  before  the  war)  are  the  neces- 


34     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

sary  and  the  only  possible  fruits  of  democracy.  Such 
observers  are  convinced  that  the  average  man  is  a 
stupid  and  selfish  person.  They  hold  with  Machia- 
velli,  that  — 

in  the  general  men  are  ungrateful,  inconstant,  hypocritical, 
fearful  of  danger,  and  covetous  of  gain.  Whilst  they  receive 
any  benefit  by  you,  and  the  danger  is  at  a  distance,  they  are 
absolutely  yours;  their  blood,  their  estates,  their  lives  and 
their  children  ...  are  all  at  your  service.  But  when  mis- 
chief is  at  hand,  and  you  have  present  need  of  their  help, 
they  make  no  scruple  to  revolt;  and  that  prince  who  leaves 
himself  naked  of  other  preparations,  and  relies  wholly  upon 
their  professions,  is  sure  to  be  ruined.^ 

They  therefore  look  upon  the  attempt  to  organize 
a  nation  on  the  basis  of  universal  freedom  and  self- 
government  as  a  crazy  dream,  and  are  convinced 
that  the  only  enduring  instruments  for  the  securing 
of  a  people  against  the  chances  of  the  world  are 
arms,  wielded  by  the  strong-willed.  "  Men,"  says 
Machiavelli  elsewhere,  *'  are  either  to  be  flattered 
and  indulged  or  utterly  destroyed  —  because  for 
small  offences  they  do  usually  revenge  themselves, 
but  for  great  ones  they  cannot:  so  that  injury  is  to 
be  done  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  fear  any  re- 
venge." 2  This  is  the  basis  of  the  doctrine  of  Macht- 
politik:  a  belief  in  the  baseness  of  mankind.  All 
men  will  be  either  exploiters  of  their  fellows  or  ex- 
ploited by  them ;  the  wise  man,  accordingly,  will  take 
care  that  he  shall  do  the  exploiting,  and  do  it  on  so 
grand  a  scale  and  with  such  thoroughness  that  none 
shall  be  able  to  withstand  him. 

^  The  Prince,  cap.  xvii.  *  /^jj.^  cap,  {{^ 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     35 

Whoever  holds  such  a  belief  must  look  with 
amused  contempt  on  any  community  that  seeks  to 
build  itself  upon  faith  in  human  nature  and  in  the 
capacity  of  the  average  man  to  think  clearly  upon 
world-issues,  and  to  decide  justly,  even  when  a  just 
decision  makes  against  his  personal  interests.  Nor 
can  it  be  forgotten  that  there  is  always  enough  cor- 
ruption in  every  republic  or  democracy  to  give  to 
such  a  view  a  superficial  plausibility.  But  when  a 
half-truth  is  isolated,  it  is  invariably  transformed 
into  a  whole  falsehood.  The  democrat  and  repub- 
lican takes  his  stand  upon  the  fact  that  no  autocracy 
has  ever  endured;  and  that,  in  every  case  where 
tyranny  has  collapsed,  or  where  schemes  of  world- 
conquest  have  broken  down,  —  from  the  days  of 
Xerxes  and  Alexander  to  those  of  the  Pan-German 
conspiracy,  —  the  failure  has  been  due  to  the  ignor- 
ing of  the  high  and  heroic  potentialities  which  are 
always  present  even  in  those  people  whose  ordinary 
conduct  is  mean,  grasping  and  selfish. 

An  Englishman,  then,  can  pledge  his  faith  to 
America  with  a  firm  belief  in  the  soundness  of  her 
ideals  and  a  convinced  preference  for  her  institutions 
over  those  of  other  nations,  without  for  a  moment 
closing  his  eyes  to  the  wrongs  that  are  prevalent 
under  them.  His  contribution  to  the  Republic  is 
this  faith  and  this  insight,  born  of  his  experience  in 
his  native  land.  He  has  enjoyed  enough  of  liberty 
to  know  that  it  can  only  be  preserved  and  kept  pure 
by  eternal  vigilance;  but  also  that  it  is  uncondition- 
ally worth  the  price.  He  knows  that  if  the  manifest 
shortcomings  of  men  had  been  held  in  the  past  as 


36     ON    BECOMING   AN   AMERICAN 

a  sufficient  reason  for  despairing  of  their  possibili- 
ties, the  liberties  that  the  British  race  has  achieved 
for  itself  and  the  world  by  a  thousand  years  of 
struggle  would  never  have  been  won,  for  the  struggle 
would  not  have  seemed  worth  while.  But  he  also 
knows  that  not  until  heroic  demands  are  made  on 
men  does  the  best  element  of  their  nature  disclose 
itself  and  begin  to  grow. 

Now,  it  is  painfully  easy,  not  only  for  foreigners 
to  indicate  conditions  in  American  political  and 
social  life  which  are  a  disgrace  to  the  name  of  democ- 
racy, but  for  Americans  themselves  to  see  these 
things.  Indeed,  in  the  few  years  that  I  have  lived 
in  this  country,  I  have  heard  far  more  railing  against 
America  from  Americans  than  I  ever  heard  from 
foreigners,  either  here  or  in  Europe.  Many  of  my 
American  friends  seem  to  have  taken  It  for  granted 
that,  in  political  life  at  all  events,  their  fellow-coun- 
trymen were  such  as  Machlavelli  declared  all  men 
to  be.  They  did  not  expect  common  honesty  in  the 
public  service,  or  ordinary,  everyday  business  capac- 
ity from  the  officials  in  charge  of  city  and  State 
affairs.  They  have  often  hinted  to  me  that  corrup- 
tion, selfishness,  peculation  and  inefficiency  were  such 
common  and  constant  attributes  of  political  life  that 
anything  different  would  be  like  a  miracle.  Of 
course  I  have  never  believed  this;  neither,  I  suspect, 
did  those  of  my  American  friends  from  whom  I  have 
heard  it.  My  reason  for  referring  to  It  here  is  to 
make  clear  that  an  immigrant,  at  all  events  when 
he  has  had  experience  of  democracy  elsewhere,  is 
neither  to  be  deceived  about  American  institutions  by 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     37 

the  flamboyant  rhodomontade  of  the  Fourth  of  July 
orator,  nor  yet  rendered  cynical  by  the  contrast  of 
the  reality  to  the  Ideal  picture. 

The  first  lesson  that  we  have  to  learn  In  dealing 
with  our  fellow-men  Is  that  we  must  not  expect  too 
much  of  them.  But  If  this  sounds  cynical,  let  me 
hasten  to  add  the  second  lesson,  which  Is  that  every 
human  being  can  at  times  rise  above  his  record,  and 
that  we  are  often  put  to  shame  by  finding  how  we 
have  under-estimated  men's  possibilities.  The  same 
is  true  with  regard  to  those  collective  activities  of 
mankind  which  we  call  political  systems.  No  polity 
is  exempt  from  abuse;  no  nation  lives  constantly  up 
to  Its  ideals.  There  is  corruption  everywhere,  the 
main  difference  being  In  the  degrees  of  coarseness 
and  blatancy  with  which  it  Is  displayed.  Undoubt- 
edly we  have  had  In  this  country  too  much  of  the 
saloon-keeper  In  politics,  and  It  Is  inevitable  that 
corruption  in  a  saloon-keeper  should  be  character- 
ized by  the  offensive  coarseness  which  is  usually 
associated  with  his  trade.  But  one  cannot  forget 
that  England  has  occasionally  raised  brewers  to  the 
peerage,  and  placed  them  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
there  to  obstruct  by  their  veto  every  measure  of 
temperance  legislation  that  threatened  to  touch  their 
profits.  Nor  can  I  see  why  it  Is  worse  for  an  Ameri- 
can saloon-keeper  (who,  after  all,  has  to  get,  by 
hook  or  crook,  the  support  of  a  majority  of  his 
constituents)  to  sit  in  a  city  council  or  State  legis- 
lature In  the  Interest  of  his  trade,  than  for  a  Lord 
Bass  or  a  Lord  Burton  to  buy  his  way  Into  the 
House  of  Peers,  where  he  has  the  power  both  to 


38     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

initiate  legislation  and  to  veto  that  passed  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  without  ever  having  to  solicit 
a  vote,  and  being  unremovable  from  his  post  of 
vantage  by  any  protest  of  the  electors.  Both  things, 
of  course,  are  wrong,  and  I  am  not  apologizing  for 
the  saloon-keeper  here.  My  point  is  only  that  cor- 
ruption may  exist  even  where  all  its  associations  are 
those  of  outward  charm  and  culture. 

But  as  no  rational  Englishman  despairs  of  Eng- 
land because  of  such  unjust  anomalies  as  those  to 
which  I  have  alluded,  so  neither  has  any  American 
the  right  to  despair  of  the  Republic  because  its  insti- 
tutions are  capable  of  abuse.  I  have  formed  my 
impression  of  the  working  of  the  machinery  of  public 
life  in  this  country  not  from  the  disparaging  com- 
ments of  my  friends,  but  by  my  own  observation, 
and  by  a  reading  of  such  admittedly  authoritative 
studies  as  Lord  Bryce's  book  on  "  The  American 
Commonwealth";  and  from  these  sources  I  have 
acquired  a  deep  respect  for  the  flexibility  of  Ameri- 
can institutions  and  for  their  ready  responsiveness 
to  the  impact  of  public  opinion.  To  revert  for  a 
moment  to  what  was  mentioned  earlier,  the  fact  that 
startles  a  newcomer  is  the  rapidity  with  which  things- 
in  this  country  are  changing  for  the  better.  Not 
only  is  it  true  that  the  personnel  of  local  adminis- 
trations tends  steadily  to  be  drawn  from  better  edu- 
cated and  more  honourable  sections  of  the  commu- 
nity, but  the  pressure  upon  political  bodies  exercised 
by  self-created  or  unofllicial  organs  of  the  higher 
public  opinion  grows  ever  greater,  ever  more  irre- 
sistible.    Indeed,  the  very  critics  whose  cynical  com- 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     39 

ments  would  lead  the  unwary  to  despair,  betray  their 
amiable  inconsistency  by  admitting  that  things  are 
much  better  than  they  used  to  be;  —  and  this  after 
denunciations  implying  that  things  are  now  so  bad 
that  they  never  could  conceivably  have  been  worse. 

One  of  the  advantages  of  coming  from  a  com- 
munity with  a  much  longer  history  is  the  habit  a 
man  forms  of  comparing  the  successive  stages  in  the 
development  of  a  nation's  life.  Nobody  who  has 
any  idea  of  what  English  political  life  was  like  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  in  the  days  of  Walpole  and  of 
Wilkes  and  Junius;  nobody  who  has  read  the  tre- 
mendous indictment  of  even  so  moderate  a  reformer 
as  Edmund  Burke;  nobody  who  recalls  Dickens's 
picture  of  the  election  at  Eatanswill,  and  remembers 
that  that  flaring  and  delightful  satire  scarcely  exag- 
gerates the  corruption  that  permeated  English  politi- 
cal life  less  than  a  century  ago;  —  nobody,  I  say, 
who  compares  all  this  with  the  present  state  of  things 
in  England  can  ever  again  despair  of  a  democracy, 
or  fail  to  recognize  that,  as  freedom  extends  and 
becomes  more  of  a  reality  and  less  of  a  pretence, 
a  nation  is  certain  to  go  forward  in  the  path  of  self- 
regeneration  and  self-purification. 

4.  A  fourth  contribution  which  every  immigrant 
can  bring  to  America  consists  in  the  positive  good 
which  he  has  derived  from  the  civilization  of  his 
native  country.  It  is  at  this  point  that  one  may  seem 
to  be  setting  oneself  up,  in  a  ludicrously  pharisaic 
fashion,  as  an  example.  I  must  therefore  beg  the 
reader  to  understand  that  in  what  I  am  about  to  say 
I  am  thinking  not  of  what  I  am,  but  of  what  any 


40     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

Englishman  ought  to  be.  I  must  also  repeat  that  on 
this  subject  the  testimony  of  each  immigrant  will  be 
different  according  as  he  hails  from  one  nation  or 
another.  I  contend  that  the  British  contribution  to 
American  civilization,  great  and  splendid  as  I  believe 
it  to  be,  is  yet  only  the  chief  among  diverse  elements 
that  have  entered  into  the  life  of  the  Republic.  No- 
body dreams  that  i\merica  is,  and  no  enlightened 
thinker  will  desire  that  it  should  be,  a  mere  repro- 
duction of  Anglo-Saxondom,  or  an  instance  of  what 
a  community  of  purely  British  origin  would  become 
under  republican  institutions.  The  value  of  the 
American  experiment  would  be  lost  if  this  nation 
became  conformed  exclusively  to  the  type  of  any 
one  of  the  nationalities  which  have  entered  into  its 
composition.  The  business  of  America  is  to  produce 
a  new  type  of  national  character  and  civilization, 
by  the  cross-fertilization  of  the  many  culture-types 
which  the  Republic  has  absorbed  and  is  absorbing. 
Let  it,  then,  be  understood  that  I  here  enumerate  the 
possible  contributions  of  the  British  immigrant 
merely  as  contributions,  and  not  as  an  exhaustive 
characterization  of  the  American  people. 

5.  The  first,  then,  of  these  contributions  is  the 
historic  memory  which  British  birth  and  education 
give  to  a  man.  He  Inevitably  escapes  the  shallow- 
ness of  a  retrospect  that  is  bounded  by  1776  or  1619, 
or  even  by  1492.  Even  though  his  philosophy  may 
not  have  accustomed  him  to  apply  the  formal  doc- 
trine of  evolution  to  human  societies  and  institu- 
tions, he  still  cannot  forget  that  in  our  life  to-day, 
and  in  the  standards  of  right  and  wrong  by  which 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     41 

we  appraise  or  condemn  our  present  surroundings, 
the  forces  that  were  at  work  in  the  fifth  century  and 
the  tenth,  and  the  thirteenth  and  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth, are  still  present  and  active.  He  knows  him- 
self to  be  not  a  new  creature,  but  the  latest  pulsation 
of  a  universal  rhythm,  the  continuation  of  a  spirit 
that  was  "  hoary  with  exceeding  eld  "  before  the 
American  continent  was  known  to  the  European 
adventurers.  He  is  at  home  in  the  pages  of  Chaucer; 
he  remembers  the  demands  made  upon  the  Norman 
kings  for  the  restitution  of  the  laws  of  Edward 
the  Confessor.  The  name  of  Alfred  the  Great  is 
no  myth  to  him,  and  he  consciously  participates  in 
the  perennial  and  indomitable  struggle  for  freedom, 
over  the  older  and  obscurer  efforts  of  which  that 
name  sheds  its  imperishable  lustre.  He  finds  him- 
self on  familiar  ground  and  among  his  own  people 
when  he  contemplates  the  quietly  serviceable  higher 
life  preserved,  amid  the  welter  of  constant  warfare, 
by  the  monks  of  Jarrow  in  the  seventh  century,  and 
reflected  in  the  quaintly  charming  pages  of  Bede. 
The  characters  of  Shakespeare  are  not  to  him  re- 
mote and  unfamiliar  figures,  for  he  has  lived  among 
their  counterparts  and  talked  with  them.  The 
struggles  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  still  pul- 
sating and  reverberating  in  the  forward  movements 
among  which  he  was  bred. 

To  him,  therefore,  the  spirit  of  1776,  when  he 
meets  with  It  in  American  history,  is  neither  new 
nor  strange.  He  knows  that  long  before  there  was 
a  man  George  Washington,  there  had  been  one 
Oliver  Cromwell,  who,  as  Boswell's  father  pithily 


42     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

remarked  to  Dr.  Johnson,  "  Gar'd  kings  ken  that 
they  had  a  lith  In  their  necks  " ;  that  before  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  there  had  been  such  men  as  Hamp- 
den and  Pym  and  Russell  and  Algernon  Sidney. 
Being  familiar  with  the  spirit  which  in  1649  executed 
Charles  I  as  "  a  tyrant,  a  traitor,  a  murderer  and  a 
public  enemy,"  he  responds  at  a  glance  to  that  indict- 
ment of  George  III  which  we  call  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  knows  quite  well  its  antecedents. 
With  such  a  memory,  it  would  be  surprising  if  he 
were  out  of  sympathy  with  that  long  struggle  for 
freedom  which  is  English  history  as  well  as  Ameri- 
can history,  or  did  not  in  some  measure  share  the 
spirit  which  made  that  struggle  and  has  been  made 
by  it. 

If,  then,  all  this  has  not  gone  for  nothing  with 
him,  there  should  be  something  of  worth  in  the  patri- 
otism that  he  offers  to  the  land  of  his  choice.  He 
must  feel  his  trusteeship  for  the  spirit  of  Hampden 
and  Falkland,  of  Milton  and  Halifax,  of  Burke  and 
Macaulay,  of  Cobden  and  Gladstone.  They  should 
be  to  him  a  present  influence,  an  enduring  standard. 
His  aspiration  should  be  that  he  and  his  children 
shall  prove  no  worse  Americans  than  these  were 
Englishmen,  that  his  thought  shall  become  no  more 
provincial  than  theirs,  that  his  service  shall  be  as 
magnanimous  and  disinterested,  his  vision  as  far- 
reaching,  his  grasp  of  principle  as  clear  and 
tenacious. 

6.  With  such  a  standard,  the  quondam  Britisher 
will  also  be  able  to  contribute  a  certain  dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  actual  which  is  the  animating  spring 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     43 

of  all  improvement.  Major  Ian  Hay  Beith,  in  his 
delightful  little  essay  entitled  "  Getting  Together," 
gives  some  advice  to  an  Englishman  as  to  what  he 
should  remember  in  conversing  with  an  American, 
and  to  an  American  as  to  what  he  must  bear  in  mind 
in  talking  with  an  Englishman.  To  the  Englishman 
he  says,  "  Remember  you  are  talking  to  a  man  who 
regards  his  nation  as  the  greatest  nation  in  the 
world.  He  will  probably  tell  you  this."  To  the 
American  he  says,  "  Remember  you  are  talking  to  a 
man  who  regards  his  nation  as  the  greatest  in  the 
world.  He  will  not  tell  you  this,  because  he  takes 
it  for  granted  that  you  know  already."  As  satire, 
nothing  could  be  more  delicate  and  charming;  but 
the  patriotism  of  a  man  who  derives  his  spirit  from 
England  ought  to  wean  him  from  any  such  com- 
placency as  Major  Beith  attributes  both  to  English- 
men and  Americans.  It  may  lead  him  to  determine 
that  his  nation  shall  become  the  greatest  in  the  world, 
but  never  to  take  satisfaction  in  the  belief  that  it 
already  is  so.  The  Englishman  has  the  reputation 
of  being  a  grumbler,  and  quite  often  it  is  true  that 
this  disposition  degenerates  into  mere  petulance  and 
querulousness.  Yet,  as  Aristotle  would  remind  us, 
every  vice  is  a  deteriorated  virtue;  and  the  spirit  of 
complaint,  when  it  is  not  morbid,  is  a  spirit  of  whole- 
some criticism.  The  Englishman  turned  American 
will  neither  say  nor  think  that  America  is  the  great- 
est nation  in  the  world;  but  he  will  sternly  deter- 
mine to  do  rll  in  his  power  to  make  it  greater  than 
it  is.  He  chooses  it  because  he  is  convinced  that  by 
promise  and  potency  it  is  destined  to  an  incalculable 


44     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

development,  that  it  carries  the  seeds  of  the  richest 
blessings  both  to  its  own  population  and  to  the  world 
at  large;  but  his  very  consciousness  of  the  ideal  will 
forbid  him  to  be  blind  to  the  imperfection  of  things 
as  they  are.  Nor  will  he  condescend  to  flatter  the 
ignorant  egotism  and  vanity  of  the  populace,  whose 
braggadocio  and  contempt  for  the  foreigner  are  at 
once  the  proof  and  the  measure  of  its  own  unworthi- 
ness  of  the  American  ideal. 

Indeed,  we  do  not  reach  the  level  of  a  truly  dis- 
criminating and  humane  patriotism  until  we  abandon 
the  use  of  the  comparative  and  superlative  degrees 
in  estimating  the  position  of  our  country  among 
the  nations  of  the  world.  Not  only  ought  we  to  cast 
out  from  ourselves  the  transfigured  vanity  and  tribal 
egotism  which  we  display  when  we  speak  of  our 
nation  as  greatest,  but  we  ought  also  to  realize  that 
the  world  as  a  whole  will  never  become  truly  the 
kingdom  of  man  until  all  nations  are  great,  and 
until  each  is  recognized  by  all  the  rest  as  embodying 
and  contributing  to  the  world  some  distinctive  ex- 
cellence which  belongs  to  no  other.  Our  ambition 
for  our  own  country,  accordingly,  should  be  not  to 
over-top  or  eclipse  its  sister  nations,  but  to  develop 
the  moral  and  spiritual  implications  of  its  own  ideal 
in  the  service  of  mankind  at  large.  It  is  only  when 
we  attain  this  level  that  we  are  true  to  the  standard 
expressed  in  classic  and  imperishable  form  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson,  in  the  series  of  public  utterances  by 
which  he  preluded  and  proclaimed  our  entrance  into 
the  European  war.  For  nations  as  for  men  the 
standard  should  be :  *'  He  that  is  greatest  among 


WHAT  CAN  I  GIVE  TO  AMERICA?     45 

you  shall  be  your  servant."  The  spirit,  whether  in 
man  or  State  or  nation,  that  talks  of  itself  as  "  big- 
gest and  best,"  that  takes  pride  in  the  fact  that  its 
population  or  its  wealth  is  larger  than  that  of  others, 
is  a  tawdry,  provincial,  nauseating  spirit,  of  which 
the  only  thing  to  be  said  is  that,  so  long  as  it  is  satis- 
fied with  its  own  greatness,  it  can  never  be  truly 
great. 


CHAPTER    IV 

WHAT    CAN   AMERICA    GIVE    TO    ME? 

WITH  a  sense  of  relief,  I  turn  from  the  some- 
what embarrassing  theme  of  the  preceding 
chapter  to  one  on  which  there  seems  less  danger  of 
one's  purpose  being  misunderstood.  But  this  feeling 
is  speedily  qualified  by  the  recognition  that  into  this 
chapter  I  must  somehow  manage  to  compress  a  well- 
nigh  inexhaustible  story.  How  in  a  few  pages  shall 
I  even  catalogue  the  benefits  which  I  am  conscious 
of  having  already  derived  from  America,  to  say 
nothing  of  those  "  good  things  to  come  "  of  which 
I  have  a  lively  presentiment?  The  undertaking 
seems  desperate;  but  as  the  attempt  must  needs  be 
made,  I  must  throw  myself  upon  the  reader's  indul- 
gence, confident  that  he  will  not  too  severely  con- 
demn an  effort  to  compass  something  palpably 
impossible. 

I.  In  seeking  to  analyze  and  assort  the  elements 
in  my  own  consciousness  which  I  owe  to  my  contact 
with  America,  the  first  great  and  definite  benefit 
which  rises  into  clear  outline  is  that  of  emancipation 
from  the  burden  of  the  past. 

When  out  of  the  silence  of  the  ocean  one  passes 
into  the  deafening  clamour  of  the  streets  of  New 
York,  and  again  when  one  journeys  on  into  the  yet 
more  raucous  and  bewildering    (and  unnecessary) 


WHAT  CAN  AMERICA  GIVE  TO  ME?   47 

shrieks  of  the  Chicago  "  Loop,"  one  seems  for  a 
time  to  be  lost  amid  the  turmoil  of  chaos.  But  after 
awhile  one  becomes  aware  that  there  is  a  spirit 
brooding  over  this  chaos ;  and  gradually,  as  the  in- 
ward ear  grows  accustomed  to  the  noises,  they  trans- 
late themselves  from  mere  confusion  into  a  thunder- 
ous assertion:  "  Behold,  I  make  all  things  new."  It 
is  the  Oversoul,  the  living  spirit  of  America,  —  the 
power  which  makes  Americans  but  is  not  made  by 
them,  —  that  thus  communicates  its  presence  and 
intention  to  the  puzzled  stranger. 

I  have  already  intimated  that  a  sense  of  the  real- 
ity and  meaning  of  the  past  is  one  of  the  things  that 
Americans  frequently  lack,  and  that  its  European 
recruits  may  do  it  a  service  by  contributing.  Let  me 
therefore  hasten  to  add  that  America  repays  such  a 
service  in  advance,  in  generous  over-measure,  by 
liberating  a  man  from  the  thraldom  of  an  excessive 
pre-occupation  with  and  subservience  to  the  past. 
Such  a  thraldom  is  one  of  the  penalties  of  age,  alike 
to  the  nation  and  to  the  individual.  Under  its  spell 
the  creativ^e,  inventive  and  originative  powers  are 
apt  to  grow  benumbed  and  atrophied,  and  one  be- 
comes incapable  of  conceiving  an  order  of  things 
radically  different  from  that  by  which  one  is  sur- 
rounded. The  wisdom  of  your  ancestors  is  so  im- 
posing, and  has  left  so  many  magnificent  survivals, 
that  it  seems  like  the  presumption  of  an  upstart  to 
think  of  superseding  the  institutions  they  devised. 

It  cannot,  of  course,  be  asserted  that  all  Euro- 
peans are  so  steeped  in  conservatism  as  this  bald 
statement  might  seem   to   imply.      Many   of  them 


48     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

would  laugh  at  the  Idea  that  they  are  thus  tram- 
melled and  impeded;  but  I  think  it  may  safely  be  said 
that  this  great  force  of  social  inertia  is  much  more 
powerful,  even  over  people  of  radical  and  innovat- 
ing temperament,  than  they  themselves  imagine. 
Their  conscious  active  Intellects  reject  Its  jurisdic- 
tion, and  they  are  as  free  in  asserting  that  it  ought 
not  to  prevail  as  any  American.  But  the  unconscious 
and  subliminal  parts  of  their  mental  and  psychic  life 
continue  to  be  swayed  by  it,  despite  their  conscious 
revolt. 

I  will  put  the  difference  between  England  and 
America  in  this  respect  into  a  deliberately  exagger- 
ated aphoristic  form,  In  order  that  the  direction  of 
the  two  tendencies  may  stand  out  clearly : 

In  America,  it  is  an  objection  to  a  thing  that  it 
was  used  and  approved  by  our  grandfathers;  in 
Europe,  It  is  an  objection  to  a  thing  that  it  was  not. 

Or,  to  borrow  a  phrase  from  a  brilliant  article  by 
Mr.  Alfred  ZImmern  that  appeared  a  few  years  ago 
In  the  London  Sociological  Review,  America  *'  re- 
places the  philosophic  '  Why?  '  of  Europe  with  the 
unanswerable  '  Why  not?  '  " 

General  tendencies  of  this  kind  disclose  them- 
selves in  a  thousand  ways;  sometimes  In  ludicrous 
details.  I  had,  for  Instance,  two  dear  old  great- 
uncles,  who  were  elderly  men  when  I  was  a  boy, 
and  who  died  not  many  years  ago,  at  the  ages  of 
eighty-one  and  ninety-three  respectively.  They  had 
retired  from  business,  and  their  chief  occupation  In 
life  when  I  was  growing  up  was  to  sit  at  the  fireside 
and  expatiate  on  the  degeneracy  of  England  as  com- 


WHAT  CAN  AMERICA  GIVE  TO  ME?    49 

pared  with  the  good  old  days  they  had  known  In 
their  youth.  Their  house  was  lighted  with  kerosene 
lamps,  because  gas  was  dangerous.  Even  the  oil 
lamp  was  looked  upon  with  squint  suspicion  as  a 
parvenu,  but  the  old  gentlemen  had  got  It  Into  their 
heads  that  the  kind  of  candles  their  parents  had 
used  were  no  longer  obtainable.  (As  a  matter  of 
fact,  I  believe  they  could  have  been  bought  at  any 
oilshop  in  London.)  They  insisted  that  in  their 
youth  the  poor  had  been  far  better  off  than  now, 
and  were  entirely  invulnerable  to  the  statistics  which 
demonstrated  the  universal  rise  of  wages  and  fall 
of  prices.  One  gathered  from  their  conversation 
that  the  race  of  great  actors  and  preachers  had  be- 
come extinct  somewhere  about  1850.  All  praise  of 
Irving  and  Terry,  of  Melba  and  even  of  Patti,  fell 
athwart  their  ears;  for  what  could  be  the  value  of 
the  testimony  of  a  generation  that  had  not  known 
"the  giant  race  before  the  flood"?  One  of  these 
dear  old  buffers  was  a  great  reader,  but  he  kept 
alive  his  faith  In  the  unapproachability  of  the  older 
English  literature  by  resolutely  refusing  to  read  a 
line  of  Swinburne  or  Browning,  Ruskin  or  Huxley, 
or  to  Imperil  his  convictions  by  comparing  the  novels 
of  George  Meredith  with  those  of  Thackeray  and 
Jane  Austen.  When  questioned  as  to  whether 
Dickens's  pictures  of  the  now  obsolete  debtors'  pris- 
ons did  not  demonstrate  that  a  marked  advance  in 
humanity  and  civilization  had  occurred  in  recent 
years,  they  were  either  silent,  or  would  take  refuge 
In  references  to  some  contemporary  scandal.  In 
the  early  '90's  they  were  Impenetrably  certain  that 


50     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

the  "  horseless  carriage"  was  an  impossibility;  and 
though  they  lived  to  ride  in  motor-omnibuses  and 
taxicabs,  their  faith  that  the  conquest  of  the  air 
could  never  possibly  be  achieved  did  not  moult  a 
feather.  One  of  them  was  lying  ill  on  the  day  when 
the  Channel  was  for  the  first  time  crossed  by  an 
aviator  (M.  Bleriot),  and  I  am  to  this  day  con- 
vinced that  my  ancient  relative's  end  was  hastened 
by  that  melancholy  portent.  No  matter  how  urgent 
the  business  on  which  I  wished  to  consult  them,  I 
could  never  get  a  telegram  out  of  either  of  them; 
and  I  am  certain  that  they  would  have  felt  guilty  of 
a  species  of  witchcraft  if  they  had  ever  tried  to  use  a 
telephone.    Peace  to  their  ashes ! 

I  still  find  it  almost  impossible  to  believe  the  testi- 
mony of  my  own  eyes  and  ears,  and  I  almost  despair 
of  inducing  others  to  believe  me,  when  I  record  the 
fact  that  in  1898  and  '99  I  talked  with  a  consider- 
able number  of  agricultural  labourers  in  the  county 
of  Berkshire  who  had  never  seen  a  railway  train. 
This  was  at  a  village  among  the  hills,  between  New- 
bury and  Wantage.  The  nearest  station  was  about 
four  miles  distant,  and  that  was  on  a  branch  line  of 
the  Great  Western  Railway,  where  about  two  toy 
trains  arrived  per  diem.  These  people  had  actually 
never  journeyed  four  miles  from  the  cottages  in 
which  they  were  born;  and  their  condition  was  in  no 
important  respect  different  from  that  of  their  Anglo- 
Saxon  serf-ancestors  of  the  days  of  King  Alfred. 
Many  of  them  could  neither  read  nor  write;  for 
even  those  who  had  been  taught  to  do  so  in  child- 
hood had  forgotten  how.     The  Church  of  England 


WHAT  CAN  AMERICA  GIVE  TO  ME?    51 

(which,  as  Samuel  Butler  somewhere  remarks,  has 
not  found  it  necessary  to  change  a  single  one  of  its 
opinions  in  three  hundred  years)  was  the  chief  influ- 
ence to  which  they  were  subjected;  and  the  difference 
between  the  village  parson  who  preached  to  them 
on  Sundays  (for  ten  whole  minutes  at  a  stretch) 
and  one  of  the  turnips  in  their  fields  was  scarcely 
visible  to  the  naked  eye.  The  squire,  who  prac- 
tically owned  them,  and  whose  lightest  word  they 
would  never  have  dreamed  of  questioning  or  dis- 
obeying, was  a  charming  fellow,  who  according  to 
his  lights  was  kind  and  affable  to  them;  but  he,  like 
the  parson  who  taught  them  to  obey  him,  had 
scarcely  a  religious  or  political  idea  in  his  head  later 
than  1562,  —  or  whenever  it  was  that  the  XXXIX 
Articles  were  put  into  their  present  shape. 

It  may  be  objected  that  I  have  deliberately  chosen 
extreme  instances  of  British  conservatism.  I  admit 
this,  but  would  remind  the  objector  that  such  in- 
stances were  by  no  means  rare,  and  also  that  ex- 
tremes are  the  best  illustrations  of  a  general  tend- 
ency. The  state  of  things  in  my  Berkshire  village 
was  repeated  in  a  hundred  others.  Only  in  a  coun- 
try where  the  hand  of  the  past  is  almost  omnipotent 
would  it  have  been  possible  for  such  things  to  con- 
tinue down  to  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century. 
It  may  also  be  objected  that  in  remote  districts  of 
America  there  are  similar  survivals  of  the  conditions 
of  the  later  Middle  Ages.  But  though  this  be  true, 
it  is  not  true  that  the  American  mountain  com- 
munities which  still  speak  sixteenth-  or  seventeenth- 
century  English  are  within  hailing  distance  of  the 


52     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

great  centres  of  civilization,  nor  do  they  have  Hving 
among  them  an  aristocracy  educated  at  the  great 
universities,  accustomed  to  foreign  travel,  sitting  in 
Parliament  and  received  at  Court,  and  abreast  of  all 
the  latest  movements  of  social  and  scientific  advance. 
The  villagers  with  whom  I  conversed  lived  within 
twenty  miles  of  the  city  of  Oxford,  that  glorious 
"  home  of  lost  causes  and  forsaken  beliefs,  of  un- 
popular names  and  impossible  loyalties";  but  they 
had  no  more  idea  of  what  Oxford  meant  or  was 
like  than  they  had  of  Damascus. 

For  myself,  I  can  testify  with  absolute  conviction 
that  it  was  not  until  I  had  twice  visited  America  that 
I  finally  succeeded  (if.  Indeed,  I  have  even  now  suc- 
ceeded) In  ridding  my  soul  of  the  oppressive  sense 
that  a  man  Is  fettered  to  the  particular  place  In 
society  In  which  he  happened  to  be  born.  I  was 
brought  up,  like  all  good  little  Anglicans,  on  the 
Church  Catechism,  the  chief  ethical  teaching  of 
which  Is  conveyed  In  the  following  paragraph :  — 

My  duty  towards  my  neighbour,  is  to  love  him  as  myself, 
and  to  do  to  all  men,  as  I  would  they  should  do  unto  me: 
To  love,  honour,  and  succour  my  father  and  mother:  To 
honour  and  obey  the  King,  and  all  that  are  put  in  authority 
under  him:  To  submit  myself  to  all  my  governors,  teachers, 
spiritual  pastors  and  masters:  To  order  myself  lowly  and 
reverently  to  all  my  betters:  To  hurt  no  body  by  word  nor 
deed:  To  be  true  and  just  in  all  my  dealing:  To  bear  no 
malice  nor  hatred  in  my  heart :  To  keep  my  hands  from  pick- 
ing and  stealing,  and  my  tongue  from  evil-speaking,  lying, 
and  slandering:  To  keep  my  body  in  temperance,  soberness, 
and  chastity:  Not  to  covet  nor  desire  other  men's  goods;  but 
to  learn  and  labour  truly  to  get  mine  own  living;  and  to  do 


WHAT  CAN  AMERICA  GIVE  TO  ME?    53 

my  duty  in  that  state  of  life  unto  which  it  shall  please  God 
to  call  me. 

The  emphasis  here  on  obedience  to  the  King  and 
his  appointees,  on  submission  to  governors,  teachers 
and  the  clergy,  on  lowliness  and  reverence  to  one's 
"  betters,"  —  all  elaborated  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
—  is  sufficient,  when  inculcated  (as  it  is)  by  a  clergy 
who  for  the  most  part  still  think  themselves  the 
natural  superiors  of  the  laity,  to  stifle  all  radical  or 
republican  sentiment,  and  to  produce  In  the  mind  of 
a  child  the  feeling  that  if  any  Ideas  of  revolt  ever 
enter  his  head,  they  can  only  be  suggestions  from 
the  devil.  Not,  indeed,  that  this  is  the  necessary 
meaning  of  the  injunctions;  but  this  Is  the  meaning 
read  Into  and  deduced  from  them  for  the  benefit  of 
the  catechumen.  Indeed,  I  am  constrained  to  con- 
fess, absurd  as  the  admission  may  seem,  that  until 
my  twenty-seventh  year,  I  was  firmly  convinced  that 
the  closing  words  of  this  passage  of  the  Catechism 
were:  "To  do  my  duty  in  that  state  of  life  unto 
which  it  has  pleased  God  to  call  me  " ;  and  I  re- 
member with  particular  pleasure  that  It  was  an 
American  friend  who  drew  my  attention  to  the  mis- 
take. I  received  my  training  in  the  Anglican  Church 
from  Tory  High  Churchmen  who  thought  political 
Liberalism  as  vile  as  atheism,  and  were  Indeed  the 
counterparts  of  Macaulay's 

Doctor  Humbug,  who  proved  Mr.  Canning 
The  Beast  in  St.  John's  Revelation. 

Consequently  It  had  convinced  me  that  God's  call 
to  the   individual  was  made   unchangeably  before 


54     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

his  birth;  Insomuch  that  I  ventured  on  a  small 
wager  with  my  American  friend  that  his  reading 
was  the  wrong  one.  When  he  showed  me  the  actual 
words  In  the  Prayer  Book,  I  was  dumfoundered 
with  astonishment. 

By  making  a  compendious  end  of  all  these  sur- 
vivals of  feudalism,  and  of  the  mood  of  resignation 
which  they  induce,  America  renders  an  inexpress- 
ible service  to  Its  adopted  sons.  It  delivers  them,  if 
not  from  the  sense  of  original  sin,  at  least  from  the 
sense  of  the  sinfulness  of  originality.  If  the  fore- 
going passage  from  the  Catechism  (which  was 
drilled  Into  every  English  child  for  centuries  In  the 
same  spirit  in  which  it  was  drilled  Into  me)  may  be 
taken  as  typical  of  the  older  spirit  of  British  con- 
servatism, at  least  In  its  extremer  form,  we  may 
contrast  it  with  a  not  less  extreme  embodiment  of 
the  radical  and  revolutionary  spirit  of  America  by 
citing  the  familiar  words  of  Whitman :  — 

This  is  what  you  shall  do: 

Love  the  earth,  and  the  sun,  and  the  animals; 

Despise  riches; 

Give  alms  to  everyone  that  it  will  help; 

Stand  up  for  the  stupid  and  crazy; 

Devote  your  income  and  labour  to  others; 

Hate  tyrants; 

Argue  not  concerning  God ; 

Take  off  your  hat  to  nothing  known  or  unknown,  nor  to 
any  man  or  number  of  men ; 

Go  freely  with  powerful  uneducated  persons,  and  with 
the  young,  and  with  the  mothers  of  families; 

Re-examine  all  you  have  been  taught  at  school,  or  church, 
or  in  any  book; 

Dismiss  whatever  insults  your  own  soul. 


WHAT  CAN  AMERICA  GIVE  TO  ME?    55 

What  a  contrast!  and  how  clear  it  is  that  wisdom 
lies  between  the  two  extremes !  Yet  It  was  necessary 
that  the  new  extreme  should  be  set  up  to  defy  and 
counteract  the  old,  In  order  that  the  victims  of  the 
old  might  be  shaken  out  of  the  slumber  that  it  had 
produced. 

Applying  the  generous  spirit,  if  not  the  eccentric 
letter,  of  Whitman's  doctrine,  America  asks  what  a 
man  can  do,  and  accepts  him  for  that.  It  does  not 
inquire  about  his  ancestors  or  his  paper  credentials, 
and  dismiss  him  If  these  fail  to  satisfy  the  Heralds' 
College.  Here  and  there  (In  Philadelphia  and  Bos- 
ton, for  example)  one  meets  with  a  certain  Inquisl- 
tiveness  about  pedigrees  which  smacks  rather  of 
Europe  than  America,  and  the  way  in  which —  even 
in  Chicago — a  plain  citizen  finds  himself  be-doctor'd 
and  professor'd  shows  that  even  In  a  Republic, 
which  has  deprived  Itself  of  the  right  to  confer  titles 
of  nobility,  the  hankering  after  such  "  additions  " 
may  not  be  wholly  extinct.  Yet  the  fashion  in  which 
all  doors  are  opened  to  demonstrated  ability  in  any 
department,  and  the  beginner  or  newcomer  Is  greeted 
with  faith  and  encouragement,  makes  of  the  United 
States  a  veritable  new  world  as  compared  with  West- 
ern Europe. 

2.  The  next  specific  benefit  which  I  am  personally 
conscious  of  owing  to  America  is  that  of  confronta- 
tion and  Intimate  association  with  representatives 
of  all  the  races  and  nationalities  of  Europe.  It  has 
been  my  fortune  to  live  for  several  months  in  a 
settlement  house  on  the  West  Side  of  Chicago,  and 
at  various  times  to  spend  many  weeks  In  the  Unl- 


S6     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

verslty  Settlement  in  New  York  and  in  similar 
institutions  elsewhere.  There  is  nothing  like  a  disci- 
pline of  this  kind  to  take  the  insularity  and  provin- 
cialism out  of  a  man,  if  only  he  has  enough  flexibility 
of  spirit  to  profit  by  it.  Ordinary  foreign  travel 
does  not  produce  the  effect  which  I  have  in  mind. 
When  you  dwell  for  a  holiday  season  among 
Frenchmen  or  Italians,  you  do  not  seek  to  pierce 
through  the  barrier  of  foreignness  that  separates 
you  from  them.  You  are  not  associated  with  them 
in  the  performance  of  civic  duties  or  the  furtherance 
of  social  ends.  Here,  however,  you  rub  shoulders 
with  them  from  the  first  upon  the  understanding 
that  they  and  you  are  to  be  fellow-citizens.  Usually 
they  have  learned  to  speak  your  language,  whereas, 
when  you  encounter  them  in  their  old  homes,  you 
have  to  make  ungainly  efforts  to  speak  theirs.  In 
this  country  you  do  not  find  merely  what  Italians 
think  of  Italy  or  Germans  of  Germany;  you  have 
the  much  more  profitable  experience  of  estimating 
their  outlook  upon  American  conditions,  and  their 
influence  in  modifying  the  environment  into  which 
they  are  being  assimilated.  One's  views  on  the  sub- 
ject of  immigration  become,  I  fancy,  considerably 
more  catholic  and  tolerant  when  one  is  an  immigrant 
oneself. 

It  is  an  astonishment  to  me  that  so  few  Americans 
seem  aware  of  the  great  educational  opportunity 
which  lies  at  their  doors,  through  contact  with  their 
fellow-citizens  of  alien  origin.  One  would  have 
expected  a  priori  that  familiarity  with  foreign  lan- 
guages would  be  much  more  general  among  Ameri- 


WHAT  CAN  AMERICA  GIVE  TO  ME?    57 

cans  than  among  any  other  people.  Yet  the  fact,  I 
fear,  is  precisely  the  opposite  of  this.  My  impres- 
sion, tested  on  a  fairly  large  scale,  is  that  among 
native-born  Americans  there  are  comparatively  few 
who  are  really  at  home  in  the  languages  and  litera- 
tures of  continental  Europe.  The  feeling  of  many 
Americans  in  this  matter  seems  to  be  identical  with 
that  of  a  certain  English  duchess,  who,  when  trav- 
elling with  her  sons  in  France,  heard  them  talking 
French  to  the  servants;  whereupon  she  exclaimed: 
"  Boys,  you  ought  not  to  talk  to  those  people  in  that 
way;  it  only  encourages  them." 

The  Hollander  in  his  own  country  makes  It  his 
business  to  learn  the  speech  of  the  people  whom  he 
daily  meets.  Even  the  boot-black  in  your  hotel  can 
generally  express  himself  passably  in  French,  Eng- 
lish and  German;  and  there  is  reason  to  think  that 
he  can  even  speak  Dutch.  The  Pole  usually  knows 
Russian  and  German,  as  well  as  his  native  tongue. 
In  Switzerland  you  can  hardly  find  a  schoolboy  who 
has  not  three  languages  in  tolerable  repair  and  in 
constant  use.  But  where  in  America  do  you  find  the 
born  American,  even  though  he  lives  in  a  community 
of  Swedish  or  German  antecedents,  who  has  con- 
descended to  learn  the  inherited  speech  of  his 
neighbours? 

It  is  right  enough  that  the  immigrant  into  an 
English-speaking  nation  should  learn  the  English 
language ;  —  indeed,  my  own  feeling  is  that  no  such 
person  should  be  allowed  to  vote  until  he  can  not  only 
speak  English,  but  read  and  write  it  as  well.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  altogether  desirable  that 


58     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

Americans  should  broaden  their  own  culture  by 
learning  from  the  immigrant  as  well  as  by  teaching 
him.  In  no  other  way  can  the  possible  benefits  of 
the  amalgamation  of  national  and  racial  types  be 
secured.  Yet,  in  this  most  cosmopolitan  of  all  coun- 
tries, hardly  any  of  the  newspapers  have  the  typo- 
graphical equipment  to  print  correctly  a  sentence  in 
French.^  Their  renderings  even  of  French  names 
produce  upon  a  stranger  an  impression  of  incredible 
illiteracy.  In  every  large  city  we  have  many  news- 
papers printed  in  foreign  languages,  but  these  con- 
stitute an  unknown  world  to  most  of  the  Americans 
who  see  them  daily  on  the  news-stands  and  in  shop 
windows.  Now,  the  business  of  learning  to  read  a 
language  (as  distinct  from  writing  and  speaking  it) 
is  a  fairly  easy  and  quite  delightful  occupation,  and 
in  no  other  way  can  the  horizon  of  the  mind  be  so 
vastly  enlarged  at  the  cost  of  so  little  effort.  But, 
owing  to  our  unwillingness  to  make  this  effort,  we 
are  in  serious  danger  of  perpetuating  the  barriers 
which  ought  to  be  broken  down  between  ourselves 
and  our  neighbours.  We  quite  rightly  ask  them  to 
abandon  their  old  loyalties;  but  we  shall  be  incred- 
ibly foolish  if  we  also  constrain  them  to  forget  the 
culture  they  have  inherited. 

It  makes  a  man's  teeth  ache  to  hear  hov/  foreign 
names  are  commonly  pronounced  by  Americans, 
and  one's  sympathy  goes  out  to  the  unfortunate 
bearers  of  these  names,  who  are  compelled  to 
acquiesce  in  their  mutilation  and  vulgarization.     I 

^  See  the  delightful  article  entitled  "Accents  Wild,"  by  Charles 
Fitzhugh  Talman,  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  December,  1915. 


WHAT  CAN  AMERICA  GIVE  TO  ME?    59 

shall  never  forget  an  incident  which  occurred  in  my 
early  days  in  America.  When  sitting  with  some 
friends  at  a  cafe,  one  of  the  party  asked  for  a  bottle 
of  beer  with  a  well-known  German  name.  This 
name,  in  a  fit  of  absent-mindedness,  he  pronounced 
correctly,  —  only  to  find  that  the  waiter  did  not 
understand  him,  and  to  be  humiliated  by  having  that 
functionary  admonish  him  in  loud  tones  of  his  error ! 
I  have  now  (for  my  sins)  been  travelling  for  six 
years  in  the  street-cars  of  Chicago,  and  I  am  at  last 
beginning  to  recognize  the  name  of  Goethe  Street 
as  variously  rendered  by  the  conductors.  We  blame 
our  foreigners  for  their  clannishness.  We  resent 
the  fact  that  they  sequester  themselves  among  people 
of  their  own  race,  and  do  not  take  the  trouble  to 
understand  our  language  or  our  history  and  institu- 
tions; but  we  are  guilty  of  an  exactly  analogous 
piece  of  provincialism  when  we  betray  our  unwilling- 
ness to  learn  from  them,  while  expecting  them  to 
learn  from  us. 

This  is  all  the  more  surprising  and  disappointing 
in  view  of  another  great  benefit  which  America  is 
conferring  upon  its  children  and  its  adopted  citizens, 
—  namely,  the  genuine  democratization  of  higher 
education.  The  free  high  school  and  university  (the 
former  of  which  is  a  recent  innovation  and  the  latter 
non-existent  in  England)  are  preparing  the  way  for 
an  immense  enrichment  of  the  life  of  future  genera- 
tions. But,  by  general  admission,  these  institutions 
remain  seriously  defective  on  the  cultural  as  distinct 
from  the  utilitarian  side.  Yet,  amazingly  enough, 
many  persons  conscious  of  this  defect  propose  to 


6o     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

remedy  it,  not  by  improving  the  teaching  of  the  so- 
called  cultural  subjects,  but  by  eliminating  them 
altogether.  I  gather  from  the  propaganda  of  Mr. 
Flexner  that  because  Latin  and  Greek  are  badly 
taught,  and  are  (so  he  erroneously  asserts)  useless 
to  persons  who  do  not  know  them  completely,  they 
should  be  dropped  from  the  curricula  of  our  high 
schools  and  universities.  Other  complaints  are  made 
about  the  uselessness  of  grammar  (though  nobody 
who  reads  our  newspapers  can  do  their  writers  the 
injustice  of  supposing  that  they  have  sacrificed  much 
time  in  studying  the  laws  of  correct  speech  and  writ- 
ing). It  would  seem  to  a  plain  man  that  the  right 
way  to  remedy  the  defects  complained  of  is  not  to 
abolish  the  studies  in  question,  but  to  teach  them 
thoroughly.  The  specific  culture  of  America  must, 
of  course,  be  a  new  thing;  but  it  is  fantastic  to  ima- 
gine that  this  new  thing  can  be  produced  otherwise 
than  by  growth  out  of  the  many  older  cultures  of 
the  world,  and  by  cross-fertilization  between  them. 
No  reasonable  thinker  will  plead  that  everybody 
should  learn  Greek  and  Latin;  that  would  be  almost 
as  bad  as  saying  that  nobody  should  learn  them. 
But  it  may  be  asserted  without  exaggeration  that 
every  pupil  who  goes  through  our  universities,  or 
even  our  high-schools,  no  matter  what  may  be  the 
fields  in  which  he  is  to  specialize,  ought  to  be  given 
a  sound  working  knowledge  of  at  least  three  lan- 
guages besides  English.  It  has  been  demonstrated 
that  such  a  knowledge  can  be  given,  when  rational 
methods  of  teaching  are  employed,  in  six  months 
for  each  language,  —  provided,  of  course,  that  the 


WHAT  CAN  AMERICA  GIVE  TO  ME?    6i 

pupil  Is  not  abnormally  deficient  in  the  kind  of  mem- 
ory and  mentality  which  the  subject  requires,  and 
provided  that  he  is  taught  the  essentials  in  a  natural 
manner,  and  not  required  (as  is  too  often  the  case 
with  Latin  and  Greek)  to  perform  conjuring-tricks 
upon  the  grammar  or  to  learn  rules  for  the  manu- 
facture of  worthless  verses.  Things  far  more  diffi- 
cult than  foreign  languages  are  taught  successfully 
in  as  short  a  period  as  six  months;  for  instance,  the 
art  of  stenography.  Having  once  had  occasion  to 
acquire  that  art  myself,  I  can  testify  that  it  demanded 
more  labour  than  the  learning  of  two  languages. 

If  we  insist  not  only  on  dropping  Latin  and  Greek, 
but  upon  bringing  about  a  general  oblivion  of  the 
living  languages  which  are  to-day  spoken  among  us, 
we  shall  cut  ourselves  off  from  our  spiritual  roots, 
and  become  the  most  provincial  nation  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth.  Even  our  own  older  literature 
(the  works,  for  example,  of  Lowell  and  Emerson) 
will  become  unintelligible  to  us.  But  this  will  not 
happen;  for  we  shall  not  allow  Mr.  Flexner,  and  the 
exceeding  great  army  of  the  phllistines  which  he 
leads,  to  triumph  over  us. 

3.  I  have  reserved  for  the  last  of  these  random 
instances  of  the  benefits  which  America  bestows  on 
the  newcomer,  that  one  which  I  think  most  impor- 
tant. It  is  the  universal  conviction  of  Americans 
that  a  life  of  idleness  is  disgraceful,  no  matter  how 
great  may  be  the  wealth  of  the  person  who  indulges 
in  it.  England,  like  Europe  In  general,  is  still  un- 
consciously dominated  by  the  idea,  surviving  from 
feudal  times,  that  work  and  trading  are  the  heritage 


62     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

of  slaves,  and  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  upper 
classes.  The  fact  of  being  a  merchant  or  manu- 
facturer is  still  a  stamp  of  inferiority  and  a  barrier 
to  social  acceptance.  It  is  not  felt  to  be  in  any  way 
wrong  for  a  man  who  inherits  a  landed  estate  or  a 
fortune  to  pass  through  life  without  ever  engaging 
in  any  form  of  productive  or  socially  useful  labour. 
The  tradition  still  survives  that  for  a  gentleman 
there  are  but  four  possible  professions:  the  Army, 
the  Navy,  the  Law  and  the  Church;  and  these  are 
the  only  things  that  Oxford  and  Cambridge  fit  a  man 
for.  A  member  of  the  "  gentleman  class  "  may  in- 
deed be  a  shareholder  in  commercial  enterprises, 
but  he  may  not  sully  his  hands  by  active  participation 
in  them.  In  Samuel  Butler's  cynical  novel,  "  The 
Way  of  All  Flesh,"  we  have  an  over-true  picture  of 
the  fashion  in  which  English  upper-class  education 
fails  to  prepare  a  boy  for  the  real  business  of  life. 
All  this,  of  course,  is  rapidly  changing  under  the 
stress  of  the  inexorable  demand  for  efficiency,  es- 
pecially as  this  has  been  brought  brusquely  home  by 
the  unprecedented  exigency  of  the  war.  But  even 
when  such  changes  take  place,  the  mental  and  psychic 
dispositions  that  correspond  to  the  older  order  are 
apt  to  survive  its  disappearance.  One  could  wish, 
for  the  sake  of  the  English  upper  classes,  that  every 
one  of  their  sons  and  daughters  should  be  obliged 
to  spend  two  or  three  years  in  America,  either  before 
or  after  completing  their  university  education.  This 
would  rid  them  for  ever  of  the  notion  that  there  is 
anything  inferior  or  degrading  in  honest  work  of  any 
kind,  and  would  force  them  to  realize  that  an  idle 


WHAT  CAN  AMERICA  GIVE  TO  ME?    63 

life,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  charm  of  its  culture 
or  dignity,  is  itself  the  worst  of  vices.  Of  all  the 
things  that  I  owe  to  America,  there  is  none  for 
which  I  am  more  grateful  than  for  its  universal 
assertion  and  enforcement  of  this  truth. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE   RENUNCIATION   OF    FOREIGN   LOYALTIES 

IT  is  Important  that  one  should  realize  clearly 
and  fully  what  is  involved  in  the  demand  which 
America  makes,  that  upon  becoming  a  citizen  here 
a  man  must  renounce  all  foreign  allegiances.  The 
actual  terms  of  the  contract  are  bald  and  legalistic, 
and  they  cannot  and  do  not  disclose  all  the  depth  of 
significance  which  the  transaction  carries  with  it.  A 
man,  moreover,  who  enters  upon  his  new  citizenship 
in  a  generous  spirit  will  feel  bound  in  honour  not  to 
minimize  the  obligations  he  assumes,  but  to  give  of 
his  loyalty  in  full  measure,  and  rather  to  exceed  than 
to  fall  short  of  what  the  Republic  asks  of  him.  In 
clearing  up  my  ideas,  then,  as  to  what  I  am  about 
when  I  exchange  my  British  citizenship  for  that  of 
the  United  States,  I  conceive  it  to  be  incumbent  upon 
me  to  search  out  the  underlying  principles  of  the 
compact,  and  in  my  demands  upon  myself  to  go  fur- 
ther than  the  strict  letter  of  the  covenant,  instead 
of  falling  short  of  it. 

For  instance,  so  far  as  the  mere  terms  of  the  bond 
are  concerned,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  a  man 
from  becoming  a  naturalized  citizen  even  though  he 
believes  in  monarchy,  —  and  in  the  divine  right  of 
kings  to  boot.  It  is  only  asked  (a)  that  he  shall 
abandon  his  allegiance  to  the  particular  sovereign 


FOREIGN   LOYALTIES  65 

of  whom  he  was  formerly  a  subject,  and  (b)  that 
he  shall  be  a  believer  in  some  form  of  governmental 
organization  of  society.  He  is  not  asked  to  affirm 
that  he  believes  in  the  republican  type  of  constitution 
as  more  humane,  just,  and  desirable  than  that  of 
monarchy  or  oligarchy.  He  has  to  swear  that  he  is 
not  an  anarchist;  but  he  is  asked  no  question  as  to 
whether  he  would  think  it  right  to  work  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  existing  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  the  establishment  of  an  hereditary  king- 
ship or  a  military  despotism  in  its  place. 

Now,  it  is  evident  that  a  person  of  a  casuistical 
turn  of  mind  might  readily  take  this  oath,  even 
though  he  considered  a  republican  government  and 
democratic  institutions  to  be  the  invention  of  the 
devil,  and  were  determined  to  do  all  in  his  power 
to  abrogate  them.  But  everybody  with  an  unso- 
phisticated sense  of  honour  and  truthfulness  will  feel 
that  he  has  no  right  so  to  act.  You  ought  not  to 
become  a  citizen  of  this  or  any  republic  unless  you 
are  by  conviction  a  republican.  The  principle  upon 
which  you  should  act  Is  one  which  is  expressed  in 
an  historic  utterance  by  Edmund  Burke :  "  Not  what 
a  lawyer  tells  me  I  may  do,  but  what  humanity, 
reason  and  justice  tell  me  I  ought  to  do."  The 
casuist  may  show  you  how,  for  sinister  purposes,  it 
is  possible  for  you  to  comply  with  the  letter  of  the 
covenant  while  your  intention  is  to  violate  its  spirit; 
but  untainted  honesty  will  Insist  that  such  a  course 
Is  worse,  by  reason  of  its  subtlety  and  hypocrisy, 
than  open  and  flagrant  perjury. 

It  would,  then,  be  "  conduct  unworthy  of  a  gentle- 


66     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

man"  for  a  man  to  subscribe  this  oath,  unless  he 
believed  (as  I  believe)  that  kingship  by  divine 
right  is  a  superstitious  imposture;  that  governments 
are  the  servants  of  the  people,  who  have  a  right  to 
call  them  to  account,  and  to  change  them,  If  they 
do  not  work  honestly  for  the  ends  for  which  they 
are  appointed.  In  choosing  the  sovereignty  under 
which  for  the  rest  of  my  life  I  am  to  live,  I  am  ex- 
ercising a  right  which  I  believe  to  inhere  inalienably 
in  all  men  and  in  all  nations.  It  may  be  true  that 
In  the  far  past  monarchy  was  Inevitable ;  it  may  long 
ago  have  been  the  only  possible  means  of  securing 
unity  of  national  action  and  responsibility  In  govern- 
ment. But  I  believe  that  at  best  it  was  a  necessary 
evil,  and  that  the  Idolatrous  reverence  for  the  per- 
son of  the  king,  and  the  irrational  belief  in  the  super- 
natural quality  of  his  authority,  were  nothing  short 
of  a  curse  upon  mankind.  Accordingly,  I  renounce 
for  ever  all  allegiance  and  fidelity,  not  merely  to 
foreign  princes  In  general  and  to  the  King  of  Eng- 
land in  particular,  but  to  monarchy  as  a  form  of 
government,  to  the  Institution  of  kingship,  and  to 
any  scheme  whereby  the  powers  of  government  are 
entrusted  to  a  person  or  class  selected  only  because 
of  the  fact  of  birth  in  particular  families.  And  I 
believe  that  nobody  can  be  or  become  a  good  Amer- 
ican who  does  not  from  his  soul  pledge  himself  in 
this  sense. 

It  goes  without  saying  that,  no  matter  what  the 
statutes  of  other  countries  may  permit,  it  Is  morally 
impossible  and  practically  Intolerable  for  any  man 
to  accept  the  privilege  of  American  citizenship  with- 


FOREIGN   LOYALTIES  67 

out  utterly  renouncing  his  former  loyalty.  Until 
some  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  British  law  formally 
refused  to  its  subjects  the  right  to  expatriate  them- 
selves. It  was  not  that  the  law  authorized  a  man 
to  swear  allegiance  to  another  Government  with  a 
mental  reservation,  or  provided  machinery  by  which, 
while  professing  to  become  a  citizen  elsewhere,  he 
could  retain  the  privileges  of  membership  in  the 
British  Commonwealth.  That,  thank  heaven,  was 
never  the  English  way  of  doing  things.  It  was 
simply  that  the  British  Parliament  did  not  recognize 
any  contract  by  which  a  man  absolved  himself  from 
his  native  allegiance.  But  this  unjustifiable  law  was 
abrogated  more  than  a  generation  ago. 

A  much  more  recent  enactment  dealing  with  the 
same  problem  was  passed  by  the  Prussian  Govern- 
ment not  long  before  the  outbreak  of  the  world- 
war.  According  to  that  statute,  a  German  subject 
residing  abroad  may  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to 
the  Government  under  which  he  lives,  but  at  the 
same  time,  by  making  an  arrangement  with  the  Ger- 
man Consul  in  the  place  of  his  residence,  he  may 
retain  the  prerogatives  of  his  German  citizenship. 
It  might  perhaps  be  instructive  to  inquire  into  the 
motives  of  this  extraordinary  arrangement;  but, 
whatever  they  may  have  been,  it  is  quite  clear  that 
no  nation  which  is  alive  to  its  own  dignity,  or  con- 
scious of  the  dangers  to  which  it  may  be  exposed, 
will  accept  the  proffer  of  allegiance  from  any  man 
who  does  not  most  solemnly  bind  himself  not  to  take 
advantage  of  such  a  statute.  Still  plainer  is  it  that, 
at  least  so  far  as  the  American  declaration  of  citizen- 


68     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

ship  is  concerned,  no  man  could  avail  himself  of  this 
German  law  without  committing  perjury.  For  the 
statement  that  the  applicant  "  renounces  for  ever  all 
allegiance  and  fidelity  to  any  foreign  prince"  means 
nothing  less  than  it  says;  and  if  anybody  were  to 
make  it,  after  having  arranged  with  the  Consul  of 
a  foreign  Power  that  he  was  not  to  be  deprived  of 
that  Power's  citizenship,  he  would  be  guilty  of  per- 
jury, and  the  Consul  and  the  foreign  Government 
would  be  guilty  of  aiding  and  abetting  him  in  that 
crime. 

There  is  one  further  stipulation  in  this  oath  of 
naturalization  which,  when  we  peep  beneath  the 
surface  of  its  wording,  opens  up  for  many  people 
a  tremendously  important  problem  in  the  obligations 
of  loyalty.  The  applicant  is  required  to  swear  that 
he  is  "not  a  polygamist  or  a  believer  in  the  practice 
of  polygamy."  To  most  civilized  men  this  will  not 
seem  very  much  to  affirm.  Nor,  indeed,  is  it;  the 
doctrine  and  practice  of  polygamy  being  an  accom- 
paniment of  barbarism.  But  the  point  that  arrests 
one's  attention  when  one  comes  to  take  this  oath 
is  that  the  State,  in  makin;g  belief  in  monogamy  a 
condition  of  citizenship,  tacitly  claims  to  possess 
independent  and  inderivative  authority  in  the  sphere 
of  morals  and  conduct.  Whoever  subscribes  to  this 
affirmation  impliedly  admits  the  right  of  the  State 
to  make  this  claim. 

Now,  it  happens  that  there  is  one  foreign  prince 
who  claims  the  right,  by  divine  commission,  to  ex- 
ercise supreme  authority  in  the  domain  of  morals 
and  conduct,   and  denies  that  any  State  possesses 


FOREIGN   LOYALTIES  69 

authority  in  this  sphere.  He  assumes  the  right  to 
regulate  marriage,  and  to  override  or  pronounce 
void  any  marriage  law  of  any  Government  which 
he  disapproves.  The  foreign  prince  in  question  is 
the  Pope;  and  there  are  many  points  at  which  his 
claims  (which  in  theory  are  binding  upon  all  mem- 
bers of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church)  come  into  vio- 
lent conflict  with  the  sovereignty  which  all  demo- 
cratic States  claim  and  exercise.  For  Instance,  in 
the  Encyclical  and  Syllabus  of  Errors  issued  on  the 
8th  of  December,  1864,  it  Is  declared  to  be  an 
"  erroneous  opinion,"  "  fatal  to  the  Catholic  Church 
and  the  safety  of  souls,"  and  Indeed  an  insanity,  that 

liberty  of  conscience  and  of  worship  is  the  right  of  every 
man,  and  that  in  every  well-constituted  State  this  right  ought 
to  be  proclaimed  and  sanctioned,  and  that  citizens  have  a 
right  to  put  forward  their  opinions  openly  and  in  public, 
whatever  they  may  be,  either  by  word  or  in  print  or  other- 
wise, without  limitation  by  ecclesiastical  or  civil  authority. 

These  opinions,  together  with  many  others  enumer- 
ated In  the  same  document,  are  reprobated  "  by  our 
Apostolic  authority."  "  We  proscribe  them,"  pro- 
ceeds the  Encyclical;  "we  condemn  them,  and  we 
desire  and  command  that  all  the  children  of  the 
Catholic  Church  should  hold  them  as  entirely  repro- 
bated, proscribed  and  condemned." 

Now,  it  Is  difficult  to  see  how  anybody  who  recog- 
nizes the  authority  of  the  Italian  autocracy  by  which 
this  decree  was  promulgated,  can  with  a  clear  con- 
science take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  American 
Commonwealth,  which  claims  the  authority  to  as- 
sure, and  actually  does  assure,  liberty  of  conscience 


70     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

and  of  worship  to  every  man  as  a  right,  and  main- 
tains that  freedom  of  speech  and  of  publication  of 
opinion  are  also  rights  which  a  well-constituted  State 
is  bound  to  uphold.  The  distinction  commonly  drawn 
between  temporal  and  spiritual  affairs  is  nugatory, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  many  so-called  temporal 
affairs  are  purely  spiritual,  and  that  all  of  them  have 
spiritual  implications.  Every  question  of  conduct, 
for  example,  is  palpably  both  spiritual  and  temporal. 
The  Pope,  in  condemning  liberty  of  conscience  and 
worship,  and  denying  the  right  of  free  speech  and 
free  publication,  aimed  a  blow  at  the  sovereignty 
of  this  Republic,  and  of  all  other  Governments  which 
do  not  accept  him  as  an  absolute  arbiter. 

Nobody  can  doubt  that  there  are  millions  of 
American-Roman  Catholics  who  are  really  loyal  to 
the  Republic,  and  who,  if  the  latent  clash  between 
its  sovereignty  and  that  arrogated  by  the  Pope  ever 
came  to  an  open  issue,  would  be  faithful  to  their 
nation.  But  these  men  can  maintain  their  fidelity 
to  their  country  only  at  the  cost  of  an  Intellectual 
inconsistency.  Nobody  dreams  for  a  moment  of 
questioning  their  right  to  hold  the  Catholic  faith 
and  practise  its  worship.  All  that  is  in  question  is 
their  allegiance  to  an  Italian  prince  who  professes 
to  be  the  infallible  custodian  of  that  faith,  and  to 
possess  authority  above  all  human  jurisdiction  to 
govern  the  morals  and  conduct  of  Catholics.  The 
Catholic  faith  is  something  which  the  American  Re- 
public guarantees  men  the  right  to  hold,  to  observe, 
and  to  propagate  by  speech  and  writing.  Loyalty 
and  obedience,  however,  to  a  foreign  dictator  Is  a 


FOREIGN    LOYALTIES  71 

totally  different  matter.  This  is  something  which 
the  very  principles  of  the  American  Constitution 
prohibit  a  man  from  entertaining.  It  is  no  more 
possible,  in  logic  or  in  honour,  for  an  American  to 
be  a  subject  of  the  Pope  than  it  is  for  him  to  be  a 
subject  of  the  German  Kaiser. 

How  sharp  is  this  latent  conflict  of  sovereignties 
becomes  still  more  manifest  when  we  read,  in  the 
same  Syllabus  of  Errors  from  which  I  have  al- 
ready quoted,  the  condemnation  of  State  education. 
Among  the  errors  "  proscribed,  reprobated  and  con- 
demned" Is  the  following:  — 

The  entire  direction  of  the  public  schools  in  which  the 
youth  of  Christian  States  is  educated,  except  to  a  certain 
extent  the  episcopal  seminaries,  may  and  must  pertain  to  the 
civil  authority,  in  such  a  manner  that  no  other  authority 
whatsoever  shall  be  recognized  as  having  the  right  to  inter- 
fere in  the  discipline  of  the  schools,  the  course  of  studies,  the 
taking  of  degrees,  or  the  choice  and  approval  of  masters. 

This  means  that  the  Pope,  and  the  clergy  to  whom 
he  delegates  his  powers,  are  by  right  the  sole  cus- 
todians of  all  education.  From  such  a  point  of 
view,  the  American  public  school,  with  Its  studies 
decreed  by  laymen  and  its  teachers  chosen  by  civil 
authority  without  reference  to  their  theological  be- 
liefs, Is  an  abomination.  And  there  are  actually 
American-Roman  priests  who  preach  and  publish  the 
doctrine  that  the  State  transgresses  its  legitimate 
authority  when  It  establishes  or  maintains  schools 
or  prescribes  the  curriculum  of  studies  therein. 

One  such  priest  Is  the  Rev.  James  Conway,  S.J., 
of  Canlslus  College,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  the  author  of 


72     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

a  pamphlet  entitled  "The  Rights  of  Our  Little 
Ones;  or,  First  Principles  on  Education,  in  Cate- 
chetical Form."  This  pamphlet,  copyrighted  in 
1890,  appeared  in  a  third  edition  in  1905,  with  the 
imprint  of  Messrs.  Benziger  Bros.,  printers  to  the 
Holy  Apostolic  See;  from  which  edition  the  ensu- 
ing quotations  are  taken.  The  author  has  an  ad- 
mirable gift  of  clear  and  lucid  exposition,  so  that 
there  Is  no  possibility  of  misunderstanding  his  posi- 
tion or  his  purpose.  He  believes  that  by  natural 
and  divine  law  the  whole  business  of  education  is 
reserved  to  parents  and  to  the  Church  (by  which 
he  means  the  Roman  Catholic  section  of  It).  He 
deduces  this  from  what  he  calls  the  natural  law  and 
the  divine  law,  the  latter  consisting  of  texts  of 
Scripture  Interpreted  In  accordance  with  his  own 
preconceptions.  As  his  very  bright  and  lucid  little 
statement  Is  now  apparently  out  of  print  and  unob- 
tainable, it  may  be  Interesting  to  present  the  reader 
with  a  few  of  his  questions  and  answers:  — 

Question  21.  Is  education  an  exclusively  parental  right? 

Education  is  a  parental  right  to  the  exclusion  of  all  in- 
terference on  the  part  of  civil  authority. 

Q.  33.  Are  parents,  therefore,  free  to  choose  teacher  and 
school  for  their  children? 

Parents  are  altogether  free,  despite  all  legislation  to  the 
contrary,'^  not  onlj^  to  choose  teacher  and  school  for  their 
children,  but  also,  if  it  seems  good  to  them,  to  educate  their 
own  offspring  themselves,  either  personally  or  with  the  aid 
of  others. 

Q.  40.  Does  education  lie  ivithin  the  scope  of  civil 
authority? 

^  Italics  the  present  writer's. 


FOREIGN   LOYALTIES  73 

Education  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  civil  authority, 
wherefore  the  State  cannot,  without  violating  higher  and 
holier  rights,  usurp  the  right  and  discharge  the  duty  of  edu- 
cating the  young. 

Q.  41.  What  rights  does  the  State  violate  by  usurping  the 
work  of  education? 

By  usurping  the  work  of  education,  the  State  not  only 
thwarts  the  intent  of  the  Creator;  ^  but  also  violates  — 

a.  The  personal  right  of  the  child  to  enjoy  the  education 
intended  by  the  Creator; 

b.  The  domestic  right  of  the  parents  to  educate  their  off- 
spring in  the  way  it  seems  best  to  them ; 

c.  As  we  shall  see,  the  divine  right  of  the  Church  to  dis- 
charge the  educational  mission  entrusted  to  her  by  her  Divine 
Founder. 

After  these  refreshingly  unambiguous  assertions, 
Fr.  Conway  proceeds  to  explain  that  the  modern 
policy  of  State  education  originated  In  countries 
where  the  Roman  Church  had  been  robbed  of  Its 
temporalities  by  Protestant  Governments.  He  tells 
his  readers  that  these  proceedings  led  to  such  a 
decadence  of  education  that  the  Governments  in 
question  "  found  It  necessary  to  erect  schools  at  the 
public  expense;  which  institutions  they  considered 
themselves  justified  in  exclusively  controlling."  He 
then  delivers  himself  of  some  astonishing  and  ro- 
mantic statements  about  the  results  of  State  educa- 
tion; as  thus: — 

(Answer  to  Q.  44,  p.  26.) 

a.  The  introduction  of  State  education  has  been  every- 
where attended  by  an  enormous  increase  of  crime,  which  can- 
not be  attributed  to  any  other  cause.  In  our  own  country 
proportionally  by  far  the  greater  share  of  crime  is  committed 

^  Italics  the  present  writer's. 


74     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

not  by  the  illiterate,  or  by  foreigners,  but  by  those  who  en- 
joyed all  the  blessings  of  a  public  school  education;  and, 
what  is  most  surprising  of  all,  as  has  been  statistically  proved, 
the  increase  of  crime  has  kept  even  pace  with  the  efforts  and 
expenditure  made  for  public  education. 

b.  The  leaders  of  anarchists,  communists,  socialists,  nihil- 
ists, and,  in  short,  all  those  who  endanger  the  social  order 
and  disturb  the  peace  of  nations,  are  for  the  most  part  the 
outgrowth  of  State  or  public  school  education. 

c.  The  same  might  easily  be  shown  of  the  lukewarm  in 
religion,  of  agnostics,  and  professed  infidels  of  the  school  of 
Ingersoll. 

Q.  45.  What  are  the  effects  of  State  education  on  civi- 
lization in  general? 

While  State  education  removes  illiteracy  and  puts  a  lim- 
ited amount  of  knowledge  within  the  reach  of  all,  it  can- 
not be  said  to  have  a  beneficial  influence  on  civilization  in 
general. 

After  this  we  learn  that  "  the  State  cannot  justly 
enforce  compulsory  education,  even  in  the  case  of 
utter  illiteracy,  as  long  as  the  essential  physical  and 
moral  education  are  suflfiiciently  provided  for." 

In  the  fourth  chapter  of  his  little  book,  the  author 
lays  it  down  that  the  Church  has  the  right  (which 
nobody  has  ever  disputed)  to  establish  schools  at 
its  own  expense  and  run  them  without  any  control 
from  the  secular  authorities.^  He  also  claims  that 
where  there  are  different  types  of  schools,  the 
Church  has  the  right  "  to  exercise  such  supervision 
over  the  secular  instruction  in  all  schools  to  which 
her  children  are  confided  as  to  assure  herself  that 
there  is  nothing  in  the  subject-matters  taught,  or  in 
the  means  of  conveying  them,  or  in  the  adjuncts, 

»  Q.  68,  p.  40. 


FOREIGN    LOYALTIES  75 

which  might  endanger  the  faith  and  morals  of  the 
youth  " ;  ^  also  to  examine  teachers  for  all  schools, 
to  remove  them  if  necessary,  or,  where  schools  are 
not  fully  under  the  control  of  the  Church,  to  exact 
the  removal  of  incompetent  teachers.^  He  insists 
that  Catholics  "  cannot  in  conscience  send  their 
children  to  American  public  schools,  except  for 
very  grave  reasons  approved  by  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities."  ^ 

It  would  be  superfluous,  and  irrelevant  to  my 
present  purpose,  to  take  up  the  points  of  controversy 
involved  in  these  assertions  and  these  exorbitant 
claims.  My  only  desire  here  is  to  point  out  that 
the  position  which  Fr.  Conway  presents,  with  such 
admirable  honesty  and  lucidity,  is  a  denial  of  the 
sovereignty  which  the  Republic  has  always  claimed 
and  exercised.  He  demands  for  a  foreign  juris- 
diction, for  an  alien  prince  and  Government,  a  mo- 
nopoly of  the  moral  and  religious  education  of  the 
children  of  America,  and  at  least  an  inquisitorial 
jurisdiction  over  their  education  in  all  so-called  secu- 
lar subjects.  In  the  name  of  this  foreign  Govern- 
ment, he  does  not  hesitate  to  tell  American  citizens, 
in  so  many  words,  that  they  cannot  without  grave 
sin  suffer  their  children  to  be  educated  in  our  public 
schools.  He  makes  the  demonstrably  false  assertion 
that  the  introduction  of  State-controlled  schools  has 
caused  a  great  increase  in  crime  wherever  it  has 
occurred.  One  would  like  to  be  favoured  with  the 
statistics  upon  which  this  assertion  is  based,  since 
the  official  returns  of  various  Governments  give  it 

1  Q.  68,  p.  39.  Ibid.,  p.  40.  3  Q.  89,  p.  so. 


76     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

the  lie  direct.  One  could  also  desire  to  be  informed 
as  to  the  bearing  of  the  assertion,  that  State  educa- 
tion originated  in  European  countries  whose  Govern- 
ments had  robbed  the  Roman  Church  of  its  tem- 
poralities, upon  the  establishment  of  State  schools 
in  this  country.  Supposing  that  the  exceedingly 
partizan  statement  of  Fr.  Conway  were  true,  what 
discredit  could  it  throw  upon  the  schools  of  America, 
where  neither  the  Roman  Catholic  nor  any  other 
sect  has  ever  been  robbed  of  a  pennyworth  of  its 
temporalities?  Even  if  State  education  had  origin- 
ated in  this  way  abroad,  the  fact  would  no  more 
reflect  discredit  upon  it  here  and  now  than  the  fact 
that  the  Catholic  Church  in  antiquity  took  over  by 
violence  the  temples  of  other  worships,  and  con- 
verted them  to  its  own  uses,  reflects  upon  present- 
day  Catholicism. 

We  have  here,  then,  a  potentially  dangerous  con- 
flict of  sovereignties;  and  we  have  a  Roman-Ameri- 
can priest  defiantly  asserting  the  supremacy  of  a 
foreign  Government  over  our  own.  He  talks  much 
of  the  rights  of  parents,  but  he  denies  that  the  na- 
tional or  State  Governments,  which  are  the  organs 
of  the  will  of  the  vast  majority  of  parents  in  this 
country,  have  any  right  to  establish  the  kind  of 
schools  those  parents  desire,  or  can  possibly  possess 
an  authority  superior  to,  or  even  co-ordinate  with, 
that  of  the  despotic  Italian  prince  in  whose  name  he 
speak. 

Now,  Fr.  Conway's  doctrine  may  possibly  be  good 
Catholicism  (though  there  are  plenty  of  good  Cath- 
olics ready  to  aver  that  it  is  not),  but  it  is  certainly 


FOREIGN   LOYALTIES  77 

bad  Americanism.  The  most  subtle  and  insidious 
of  all  foreign  loyalties,  and  the  one  which,  before 
all  others,  ought  to  be  renounced  by  the  citizens  of 
a  free  commonwealth,  is  this  loyalty  to  a  man  who 
claims  to  be  the  irresponsible  arbiter  of  morals  and 
conduct.  It  may  be  wise  to  let  sleeping  dogs  and 
sleeping  dogmas  lie;  but,  if  I  mistake  not,  this  par- 
ticular dogma  is  very  far  from  sleeping.  Its  eyes 
are  not  more  than  half  closed,  and  its  teeth  and 
claws  are  ready  for  use  the  moment  a  propitious 
conjuncture  of  circumstances  shall  arise. 

I  swear  allegiance  to  America,  in  the  conviction 
that  my  oath  necessarily  carries  with  it  the  rejection 
of  the  claims  of  the  Pope  to  override  the  sovereignty 
of  democratic  nations.  I  understand  the  American 
Commonwealth  to  maintain  that  every  nation  has 
the  right  to  unquestioned  autonomy  in  spiritual  mat- 
ters, like  education,  as  well  as  in  so-called  temporal 
ones,  like  taxation.  I  admit  that  claim ;  —  which, 
indeed,  is  only  a  deduction  from  the  right  of  every 
man  to  freedom  of  thought  and  conscience.  There 
are  millions  of  Catholics  who  are  not  Papists;  which 
demonstrates  that  Papalism  has  nothing  necessarily 
to  do  with  Catholicism.  The  pretences  of  the  Pope 
are  an  indefensible  usurpation  of  a  sovereignty  that 
belongs,  by  divine  right,  to  the  democratic  nation 
itself;  and  I  understand  my  oath  to  mean  the  rejec- 
tion of  these  pretences,  as  much  as  of  the  allegiance 
I  formerly  owed  to  the  King  of  Great  Britain. 

It  may  possibly  be  replied  to  the  foregoing  argu- 
ment that  Roman  Catholics  are  no  longer  bound  by 
the  Encyclical  of  1864.     I  may  be  told  that  Fr.  Con- 


78     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

way,  being  a  Jesuit,  does  not  represent  the  general 
attitude  of  the  Roman  Catholics  of  this  country,  or 
of  their  priesthood.  Nothing  would  be  more  grati- 
fying to  clear-headed  Americans  than  to  have  this 
assurance  made  officially  on  behalf  of  the  American- 
Roman  clergy.  It  will  be  easy  enough  for  them  to 
disavow  the  assumptions  of  the  Vatican,  If  they  are 
in  a  position  to  do  so ;  and  by  doing  it,  without  equi- 
vocation or  mental  reservation,  they  will  free  them- 
selves from  an  imputation  which  many  of  the  laity, 
at  least,  undoubtedly  do  not  deserve,  but  which  at 
present  stands  as  a  barrier  in  the  way  of  whole- 
hearted communion  in  the  service  of  the  Republic 
between  them  and  their  fellow-citizens.  Let  them 
acknowledge  that  the  State  possesses  an  original 
and  Imprescriptible  authority  to  secure  freedom  of 
conscience  and  of  worship  to  all,  and  to  endow 
schools  and  control  the  teaching  therein.  Let  them 
declare  that  free  thought  and  speech,  and  the  public 
school,  exist  de  iiire,  and  are  not  merely  to  be  toler- 
ated because  they  cannot  at  present  be  got  rid  of. 
As  soon  as  men  see  that  Roman  Catholics,  clergy 
as  well  as  laity,  are  free  to  take  this  stand  without 
condemnation  from  Rome,  all  difficulty  and  distrust 
will  be  at  an  end. 

Note. —  I  wish  to  repeat,  with  the  strongest  possible  emphasis,  that 
the  foregoing  pages  do  not  contain  or  constitute  an  attack  upon 
Catholicism,  or  upon  any  article  of  the  Catholic  creeds,  or  upon  the 
usages  of  Catholic  worship,  or  upon  the  orders  of  the  ministry,  or 
upon  the  Pope  in  his  spiritual  capacity.  They  are  a  criticism  and  a  re- 
jection only  of  the  Pope's  claim  to  exercise  a  sovereignty  rivalling  the 
just  sovereignty  of  nations  over  their  citizens,  and  superior  to  that  of 
nations.  All  that  I  have  said  could  perfectly  well  be  subscribed  to  by 
any  believer  in  the  entire  Catholic  faith;  indeed,  I  have  but  expressed 
what  is  actually  held  by  many  Catholics,  and  what  is  impUcitly  held 
and  expressed  in  practice  by  millions  of  them. 


CHAPTER   VI 

TO   WHAT    DOES    ONE    SWEAR   ALLEGIANCE? 

THE  answer  to  this  question  is  less  obvious 
than  at  a  superficial  glance  It  would  appear 
to  be.  One  gives  one's  pledge  to  the  Government  of 
the  Republic,  through  its  legally  authorized  officials; 
but  It  Is  far  from  being  merely  a  declaration  of  per- 
sonal loyalty  to  the  Administration  which  happens 
to  be  in  office  at  the  time  when  It  is  made.  In  a 
republic  you  do  not  become  a  subject;  you  are  made 
a  citizen :  and  this  means  that  your  allegiance  Is 
given  not  exclusively  to  any  person  or  group  of  per- 
sons, but  to  something  far  more  enduring,  far  more 
powerful,  and  yet  far  more  elusive.  You  become 
Incorporated  into  the  nation,  and  It  Is  to  the  nation 
that  your  fidelity  Is  vowed. 

But  what  Is  a  nation? 

It  is  when  we  begin  to  think  about  this  question 
that  the  complexity  of  the  problem  discloses  Itself. 
It  Is  quite  clear  that  a  nation  (in  Mazzinl's  words) 
is  "  not  a  mere  zone  of  territory  ";  for  a  child  can 
see  that  the  territory  of  the  United  States  existed 
before  the  American  nation  had  begun  to  come  Into 
being,  and  would  remain  though  the  nation  were 
utterly  destroyed;  and  besides,  the  Idea  of  pledging 
one's  allegiance  to  three  million  square  miles  of  land 
is  ridiculous.     You  can  be  loyal  to  a  personal  being 


8o     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

or  to  an  ideal,  but  not  to  a  stretch  of  country.  It  Is 
only  when  the  land  has  become,  so  to  speak,  drenched 
with  the  ideals  of  its  people  that  it  can  begin,  even 
in  a  figurative  sense,  to  constitute  a  part  of  the  object 
of  a  man's  loyalty. 

Nor,  again,  would  it  be  correct  to  say  that  one's 
allegiance  is  tendered  to  the  hundred  millions  of 
people  who  happen  to  be  living  under  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  at  a  given  moment.  For  again  it  is  clear 
that  the  nation  existed  before  they  were  born,  and 
will  continue  to  exist  after  they  are  dead.  The  na- 
tion was  already  alive  and  active  when  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  drawn  up,  and  every 
American  hopes  and  believes  that  it  will  continue  to 
be  alive  and  active  after  Macaulay's  New  Zealander 
shall  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  meditated  among 
the  ruins  of  New  York.  Again,  as  Americans  have 
been  insisting  ever  since  the  Revolution,  and  more 
particularly  since  the  Civil  War,  the  nation  is  a 
single  and  indivisible  unity.  It  is  the  "  One  out  of 
many"  referred  to  on  our  coinage;  and  neither  a 
hundred  millions  of  people  nor  yet  forty-eight  States 
can  properly  be  called  One,  save  in  a  sense  that  it 
needs  careful  analysis  to  disentangle. 

The  plot  thickens,  and  begins  to  take  on  almost 
the  air  of  a  metaphysical  riddle,  when  we  have 
realized  that  neither  the  existing  generation  nor  any 
of  its  predecessors  can  be  said  to  constitute  Amer- 
ica. For  every  American  now  living  would  find  it 
impossible,  —  indeed,  every  American  who  was  liv- 
ing in  1776  would  have  found  it  impossible, — to 
deny  that  it  was  America   which  had  made   him. 


SWEARING   ALLEGIANCE  8i 

Each  native-born  citizen  of  this  country  is  the  out- 
come of  a  history,  an  Ideal,  a  tradition,  and  a  unique 
collective  life.  It  is  not  merely  that  men  are  the 
products  of  their  environment  in  the  biological  sense; 
it  Is  also  the  fact  that  that  environment  has  itself 
been  moulded  and  changed  by  the  more  elusive 
spiritual  forces  which  determine  the  history  and  con- 
stitute the  identity  of  the  nation  In  which  they  inhere. 

In  these  hidden  potencies  the  nation  really  con- 
sists. Every  American  at  birth  becomes  a  part  of 
It;  but  he  can  do  this  only  because  It  existed,  com- 
plete and  living,  and  ready  to  absorb  him,  before- 
hand. It  may  be  likened  to  a  fire.  Into  which  suc- 
cessive increments  of  fuel  are  thrown.  Each  of  them 
becomes  a  part  of  the  fire,  and  contributes  to  its 
heat  and  flame;  but  they  could  not  do  this  if  the  fire 
had  not  been  burning  before  they  were  cast  Into  it. 

And  yet  the  comparison  fails  us;  for  the  truth 
about  a  nation  is  subtler  than  any  physical  Image 
can  represent.  We  must  remind  ourselves  that, 
whereas  a  fire  does  not  create  the  things  that  are 
thrown  upon  it,  the  nation  does  create  its  citizens. 

To  express  the  connection  between  the  Republic 
and  the  States,  we  use  the  phrase  "  E  plurihus 
ununi.^^  But  how  is  It  possible  for  the  One  —  the 
nation  —  to  be  derived  from  forty-eight  States, 
thirty-five  of  which  did  not  exist  when  it  came  into 
being?  Yet  nobody,  I  suppose,  will  deny  that  the 
relation  of  vital  Interdependence  between  the  nation 
and,  let  us  say,  Oregon  or  California,  is  now  as  close 
and  real  as  that  between  the  nation  and  Pennsyl- 
vania or  Massachusetts.     Whatever  may  have  been 


82     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

the  case  with  regard  to  the  original  thirteen  Col- 
onies, all  the  rest  of  the  States  have  unquestionably 
been  created  by  the  nation;  although,  to  be  sure, 
the  moment  they  are  made,  they  in  turn  become 
parts  of  that  which  has  created  them. 

But  we  must  push  the  problem  further  back,  and 
recognize,  even  though  it  appear  at  first  blush  to  be 
in  defiance  of  the  historic  facts,  that  it  was  the  nation 
which  made  the  first  thirteen  States.  They  had 
been  mere  Colonies;  that  is  to  say,  offshoots  of  an- 
other nation;  and  their  transition  from  the  rank  of 
Colonies  to  that  of  States  was  possible  only  because 
there  was  already  a  new  nation  to  confer  upon  them 
their  higher  status  and  prerogatives.  None  of  them 
singly  could  have  made  itself  a  State.  It  was  the 
living  power  which  we  call  America  that  did  this. 
It  was  the  new  will,  which  had  grown  up  in  and 
through  the  exigencies  of  Colonial  experience.  The 
moment  this  will  became  conscious  of  itself,  the 
moment  its  identity  in  all  the  Colonies  was  recog- 
nized, the  American  nation  was  born.  This  means 
that  it  had  existed  before  the  first  Continental  Con- 
gress had  convened,  its  first  unmistakable  expression 
being  the  impulse  which  led  to  the  convening  of  that 
Congress.  From  then  till  now,  by  an  Irresistible 
process  of  self-development,  the  nation  has  been 
growing  towards  the  consciousness  that  It  Is  the  one 
truly  autonomous,  sovereign  entity  In  all  these  three 
million  square  miles,  and  over  all  these  successive 
and  ever-multiplying  hosts  of  human  creatures. 

The  States  at  first  Imagined  that  the  little  child 
born  to  them  was  inferior  to  them,  —  that  it  pos- 


SWEARING   ALLEGIANCE  83 

sessed  no  original  and  inderivative  powers  of  its 
own,  but,  like  all  good  children,  was  to  do  what  its 
parents  told  it,  and  not  presume  to  arrogate  to  itself 
any  rights  or  functions  other  than  those  which  were 
specifically  delegated  to  it.  At  first  the  child  was 
obedient  enough;  but  it  was  not  long  before  the 
parents  discovered  that  something  incalculably  great 
and  strange  —  something  which  they  could  not  con- 
trol, but  which  was  predestined  to  control  them  — 
had  come  into  life.  It  was  impossible  to  arrest  the 
growth  of  the  child;  and  in  little  more  than  seventy 
years  the  young  giant  had  developed  to  such  an 
extent  that  he  was  ready  to  turn  upon  his  begetters, 
and  threaten  with  destruction  those  of  them  that 
refused  to  submit  to  his  will. 

The  essence  of  the  Civil  War  was  the  clash  be- 
tween the  theoretical  idea  with  which  the  original 
States  had  set  out,  and  the  massive  and  unescapable 
reality  which  in  the  meantime  had  been  growing  up. 
To-day,  if  we  prefer  scientific  precision  to  the  flat- 
tery of  local  vanities,  we  shall  have  to  recognize 
that  the  Republic  is  in  truth  not  only  a  single  nation, 
but  also  a  single  State.  For  it  is  the  Republic  in 
its  unity  which  alone  possesses  and  exercises  the  dis- 
tinctive prerogatives  of  Statehood,  —  those,  namely, 
of  entering  into  relations  with  foreign  States,  of 
imposing  and  removing  tariffs,  of  making  treaties, 
appointing  and  commissioning  ambassadors,  and 
determining  the  issues  of  peace  and  war.  Any 
Power  which  can  do  these  things  is  a  State;  one 
which  cannot  do  them  is  not  accurately  described  by 
that  term. 


84     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

It  was  the  half-unconscious  recognition  of  these 
realities  which  led  to  the  War  of  Secession.  Mis- 
taking words  for  things,  the  Confederacy  imagined 
that  the  locally  self-governing  units  composing  it 
were  free  to  secede  from  the  Union  into  which  they 
had  voluntarily  entered.  Had  they  been  truly 
States,  this  would  unquestionably  hav,e  been  the 
case;  but  because,  like  their  Northern  neighbours, 
they  were  in  reality  not  States,  but  only  constituent 
parts  of  the  one  American  State,  it  was  not  in  their 
power  or  within  their  right  to  sunder  themselves 
from  the  indivisible  Republic. 

Evidently,  then,  the  America  to  which  at  naturali- 
zation we  pledge  our  fidelity  is  something  vaster 
than  what  can  be  seen  and  touched  at  any  moment; 
it  is  something  more  even  than  the  Constitution  and 
laws,  to  which  the  statute  demands  our  allegiance. 
It  Is  the  over-arching  and  informing  Spirit  out  of 
which  these  have  come.  It  is  the  mighty  Will,  which 
has  been  growing  to  self-consciousness  and  self- 
determination  from  the  days  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
to  our  own.  It  was  not  made  by  the  Revolution; 
it  made  the  Revolution.  While,  to  be  sure,  it  can 
act  only  through  the  persons  who  at  a  given  moment 
constitute  the  population  of  the  country,  it  is  never- 
theless true  that  by  it  those  persons  have  been  made 
what  they  are. 

There  is,  in  strictness,  no  such  thing  as  "  accident 
of  birth  " ;  a  man's  character,  up  to  the  point  at 
which  it  becomes  free  and  self-determining,  is  the 
outgrowth  of  definitely  traceable  causes,  spiritual 
as  well  as  physical.     America  embodies  itself  anew 


SWEARING   ALLEGIANCE  85 

in  each  of  its  sons.  Unique  as  their  individuality 
may  be,  original  and  independent  as  their  genius 
and  temperament  often  are,  they  yet  owe  their  very 
inmost  selfhood  to  this  super-personal  and  super- 
temporal  spirit  of  the  nation,  from  and  into  which 
they  are  born.  It  is  this  spirit  which  demands  of  the 
newcomer  his  loyalty  and  the  renunciation  of  all 
other  allegiances.  It  is  this  mighty  mother  of  free- 
men, this  inspirer  of  a  people's  ideals,  which  says 
to  its  children,  as  the  genius  of  the  Hebrew  nation 
said  to  the  Jews  of  old,  "  Thou  shalt  have  none 
other  gods  before  me." 

Nothing  is  more  striking  than  the  fashion  in 
which  these  deeper  tmths  about  the  nature  and 
meaning  of  nationality  emerge  into  men's  conscious- 
ness upon  the  pressure  of  any  great  crisis  or  shock 
of  danger.  Never  was  there  a  population  whose 
national  character  was  more  marked  than  that  of 
Americans;  yet  never  has  there  been  a  people  that 
in  ordinary  times  was  so  unconscious  of  the  reality, 
the  presence  and  power  of  the  forces  that  had  made 
and  were  for  ever  re-making  it.  The  great  utter- 
ances of  the  American  spirit  all  belong  to  times  of 
war  or  national  peril;  they  have  all  been  inspired  by 
the  presence  of  danger,  either  from  within  or  from 
without.  And  of  late,  with  a  war  of  unprecedented 
magnitude  upon  our  hands,  history  has  repeated  it- 
self. Last  year,  for  example,  Mr.  Franklin  Lane, 
Secretary  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  dis- 
cussing the  question  why  we  were  at  war  with  Ger- 
many, expressed  the  true  nature  of  America  in  these 
eloquent  words :  — 


86     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

America  is  not  the  name  of  so  much  territory.  It  is  a 
living  spirit,  born  in  travail,  grown  in  the  rough  school  of 
bitter  experiences;  a  living  spirit  which  has  purpose  and 
pride  and  conscience;  knows  why  it  wishes  to  live,  and  to 
what  end ;  knows  how  it  comes  to  be  respected  of  the  world, 
and  hopes  to  retain  that  respect  by  living  on  with  the  light 
of  Lincoln's  love  of  man  as  its  old  and  new  testament. 

It  is  more  precious  that  this  America  should  live  than  that 
we  Americans  should  live.^ 

"  America  is  a  living  spirit."  "  This  America  " 
is  substantive;  "we  Americans"  are  adjectival. 
The  very  collocation  of  the  words  shows  the  priority 
of  the  nation  to  its  people  and  their  derivativeness 
from  It.  Now,  when  a  man  uses  such  phrases,  Is  he 
merely  sentimentalizing,  is  he  embroidering  upon 
the  facts  a  lacework  of  poetic  fancy?  Is  It  only  a 
flight  of  Imagination,  to  which  the  speaker  Is  Im- 
pelled by  the  exaltation  of  the  moment? 

Nay;  rather  It  Is  the  exaltation  of  the  moment 
which  lifts  a  man  out  of  the  ground-mists  In  which 
our  pedestrian  dally  life  Is  enshrouded,  and  discloses 
to  him  the  truth  that  can  only  be  seen  In  the  light 
of  the  upper  air.  America  Is  In  literal  truth  a  living 
spirit;  for  what  save  life  can  beget  life?  What  but 
a  living  spirit  could  create  men  and  women  as 
America  creates  her  children?  What  but  a  mighty 
personal  or  super-personal  power  can  engender  soul 
and  character,  Impart  individuality,  and  make  the 
difference  between  the  South  Sea  Islander  and  the 
proud  and  self-reliant  American? 

Mr.  Lane  speaks  of  "  Lincoln's  love  of  man  " 

*  From  a  report  in  The  Springfield  Republican,  weekly  edition, 
June  7th,  1917. 


SWEARING   ALLEGIANCE  87 

as  the  old  and  new  testament  of  America ;  and  again 
he  is  meticulously  exact,  for  that  love  of  man  was 
old  in  America  before  it  was  made  new  in  Lincoln. 
It  was  the  Old  Covenant,  the  divinely  appointed 
thing,  which  had  given  rise  to  and  justified  the  sepa- 
rate life  of  America.  From  her,  Lincoln  himself 
derived  it;  his  glory  is  that  he  was,  in  Lowell's 
words,  "  the  first  American,"  —  the  first  in  whom 
what  had  always  been  implicit  in  the  American 
genius  became  explicit,  fully  conscious,  and  power- 
fully active.  This  love  of  man,  we  may  say,  without 
irreverence  but  with  closest  truth,  was  the  American 
Word,  which  had  been  from  the  beginning,  by  which 
all  things  American  were  made;  and  in  Lincoln  it 
was  made  flesh. 

"  But  where,"  it  may  be  asked,  "  are  we  to  look 
for  this  America?  What  evidence  can  be  adduced 
to  show  that  it  is  anything  more  than  a  dream,  an 
ideal,  a  fleshless,  lifeless  abstraction,  or  the  aspira- 
tion of  a  few  enthusiasts?  Granted  that  once  in  a 
century  there  comes  a  man  like  Lincoln,  do  we  not 
delude  ourselves  if  we  think  that  there  is  anything 
peculiarly  American  in  his  spirit  and  genius?  Would 
he  not  have  been  the  same  Abraham  Lincoln  if  he 
had  been  born  in  France  or  England? 

"And," — so  we  may  imagine  our  objector  reason- 
ing, —  "  seeing  how  utterly  different  Lincoln  was 
from  the  mass  of  his  fellow-countrymen  (who,  on 
your  own  showing,  are  just  as  much  products  of 
America  as  he),  is  it  not  fantastic  to  credit  his  vir- 
tues to  this  mystical  American  spirit  of  which  you 
speak?     At  all  events,  if  we  grant  that  America  is 


88     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

entitled  to  the  praise  of  his  virtues,  must  not  the 
vices  of  other  Americans  be  equally  debited  to  it?  " 

These  objections  may  be  most  simply  answered 
by  pointing  to  the  fact  that  in  the  history  of  Amer- 
ica, as  of  every  nation,  there  can  be  traced  a  certain 
general  tendency,  which  is  at  first  obscure,  but  which 
with  the  years  grows  into  clear  definition.  This  is 
the  movement  towards  complete  and  fully  articu- 
lated democracy.  Western  civilization  as  a  whole 
has  during  the  last  four  centuries  manifested  this 
tendency;  but  in  each  nation  the  common  urge  has 
taken  a  specific  direction.  It  has  had  to  encounter 
not  only  a  special  set  of  circumstances  and  events  in 
each  country,  but  also  a  national  character  in  the 
people,  distinct  and  individual  in  each  case,  the  out- 
come of  their  former  history  and  of  many  other 
factors,  too  complicated  for  analysis. 

This  tendency  towards  democracy  has  proceeded 
fastest  and  farthest  in  Britain  and  America.  Al- 
though it  had  made  important  progress  In  Britain 
more  than  a  century  before  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, it  moved  much  more  rapidly  in  America,  once 
it  had  got  started  on  the  national  scale,  than  in 
Britain;  for  the  simple  reason  that  in  America  the 
obstacles,  in  the  shape  of  tradition,  national  tem- 
perament, and  vested  Interests  in  antiquated  insti- 
tutions, were  immeasurably  less  powerful. 

If,  now,  we  consider  American  history,  as  a  single 
evolutionary  movement,  from  1776  to  the  present 
day,  we  shall  see  that  the  spirit  which  Mr.  Lane 
calls  "  Lincoln's  love  of  man  "  has  been  growing 
more    clearly    conscious    of    itself    throughout    the 


SWEARING   ALLEGIANCE  89 

process.  In  the  Revolution,  the  stream  of  tendency 
which  subsequent  growth  proved  to  be  the  dominant 
current  of  American  life  was  only  one  among  a 
number  of  rills,  trickling  towards  their  confluence. 
At  the  outset,  the  emphasis  on  liberty  and  equality 
might  seem  to  have  been  mainly  dictated  by  the 
exigencies  of  the  moment.  The  very  men  who 
raised  this  standard  were  in  many  cases  slave-hold- 
ers. And  certainly  the  formulation  of  the  Consti- 
tution and  the  establishment  of  the  national  Gov- 
ernment was  marked  by  an  extreme  hesitancy,  an 
obvious  reluctance  to  give  freedom  its  head,  a  pro- 
nounced disposition  to  bridle  and  saddle  it  with  all 
sorts  of  checks  and  balances;  insomuch  that  many 
critics  (such  as  Walter  Bagehot,  in  his  book  on 
"The  English  Constitution")  have  declared  that 
the  democratic  movement  in  England  has  been  much 
less  trammelled,  in  the  absence  of  a  written  Consti- 
tution, than  in  America,  with  Its  social  contract 
drawn  up  on  paper. 

Yet,  nevertheless,  the  impulse  which  is  expressed 
in  the  doctrine  of  inalienable  natural  rights  has  cut 
its  way  through  all  the  reticulations  by  which  It  was 
impeded.  Freedom  has  "broadened  down";  and 
at  point  after  point  of  domestic  policy,  and  still 
more  of  foreign  policy,  America  has  become  aware 
that  she  must  either  stand  for  her  organic  principle, 
her  structural  Ideal,  or  lose  her  reason  for  existence. 
The  stand  taken  by  President  Wilson,  and  endorsed 
with  such  eloquent  unanimity  by  the  Congress,  in 
the  matter  of  the  European  War,  is  only  the  latest 
of  a  series  of  illustrations  of  the  truth  for  which  I 


90     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

am  contending.  America  has  avowedly  undertaken 
to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy;  —  meaning, 
of  course,  in  the  first  place,  to  make  the  world  safe 
for  the  United  States ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  to  make 
it  safe  for  Russia  and  France  and  Switzerland,  and 
even  for  the  democratic  spirit  which  has  so  long 
been  fettered  and  cast  into  dungeons  in  Germany. 

A  man,  it  is  said,  only  learns  to  know  himself 
when  he  is  subjected  to  temptation.  Similarly,  a 
nation  only  learns  to  know  itself  when  it  is  con- 
fronted with  those  great  moral  issues  in  which  the 
fate  of  all  mankind  may  be  involved.  It  is  her  deal- 
ings with  the  rest  of  the  world,  even  more  than  with 
the  exigencies  of  her  internal  development,  that  have 
revealed  to  America  her  own  real  nature  and  spirit; 
and  she  has  always  found,  and  we  trust  always  will 
find,  that  when  such  issues  arise,  she  must  stand  for 
an  ever-increasing  measure  of  liberty,  self-govern- 
ment and  social  justice.  She  realizes  when  the  crises 
come  that,  like  Luther,  she  can  do  no  other. 

The  answer,  then,  to  our  objector's  first  question 
leads  us  to  the  answer  to  the  others.  The  living 
spirit  of  America,  of  which  Mr.  Lane  spoke,  is  not 
a  dream.  It  is  the  determinant  energy  which  gov- 
erns and  unifies  and  directs  the  will  of  the  American 
people.  This  is,  If  you  please,  an  ideal;  but  then, 
all  thinkers  (except  extreme  materialists)  are  aware 
that  Ideals  are  the  most  real  of  all  things  and  the 
most  potent  of  realities. 

It  Is  the  presence  and  activity  of  this  ideal  which 
accounts  for  the  specific  character  and  conduct  of  a 
representative  man  like  Lincoln.     He  is  distinctively 


SWEARING   ALLEGIANCE  91 

and  peculiarly  American;  and  it  is  idle,  or  rather 
meaningless,  to  say  that  he  would  have  been  the 
same  man  had  he  been  born  In  any  other  country. 
It  might  as  well  be  argued  that  the  "  Divina  Corn- 
media  "  would  be  the  same  poem  had  Dante  been 
born  elsewhere  than  in  Florence,  or  at  another  time 
than  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  repre- 
sentative man  (who  must  be  most  carefully  dis- 
tinguished from  the  average  man)  is  representative 
because  he  cannot  be  detached  from  the  context  of 
history  and  psychology  in  which  we  find  him.  He  is 
like  the  budding-point  on  the  tree,  to  which  its  life 
converges;  whereas  the  average  man  is  like  the  bark, 
the  passive  husk  which  only  tells  of  the  kind  of  life 
that  is  within.  It  may,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
be  conceded  that  the  same  identical  assemblage  of 
native  predispositions  which  went  to  the  making  of 
Lincoln  might  have  been  embodied  In  a  single  man 
in  France  or  England  or  Russia  —  though  even  this, 
at  bottom,  is  an  unthinkable  hypothesis.  Yet,  if  this 
had  happened,  the  whole  of  such  a  man's  post-natal 
impressions  and  experiences  would  inevitably  have 
canalized  his  predispositions  in  quite  different  direc- 
tions. Such  powers  as  Lincoln's  would,  of  course, 
raise  a  man  to  some  kind  of  leadership  anywhere 
and  at  any  time.  But  in  England,  for  example,  class 
distinctions,  the  emphasis  on  ancestry,  and  the 
monopoly  of  university  education  by  a  particular  re- 
ligious denomination,  would  have  prevented  a  man 
of  Lincoln's  antecedents  from  struggling  to  the  head- 
ship of  the  nation;  and  analogous  hindrances  would 
have  had  the  same  effect  In  any  European  country. 


92     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

Again,  the  special  moral  and  political  issues  with 
which  a  statesman  is  called  upon  to  deal,  are  not 
something  wholly  detached  or  separable  from  his 
personality.  On  the  contrary,  his  individuality 
comes  to  be  what  it  is  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
he  is  confronted  with  these  issues  rather  than  others. 
They  act  upon  him  as  much  as  he  acts  upon  them; 
and  it  is  out  of  the  wrestling  that  he  wins  the  blessing 
of  his  peculiar  and  distinctive  greatness.  Not  only, 
then,  would  Lincoln  not  have  been  the  same  man  had 
he  been  born  and  reared  abroad,  but  he  would  not 
have  been  the  same  even  had  he  been  born  in  Amer- 
ica twenty  years  earlier  or  later.  It  was  the  pres- 
sure of  the  special  events  of  the  eighteen-forties  and 
'fifties  upon  a  unique  spirit  which  was  then  growing 
to  its  rich  maturity,  and  which  found  itself  through 
its  reaction  to  those  events,  that  gave  America  its 
unprecedented  and  induplicable  hero. 

The  question  whether,  if  we  credit  America  with 
the  virtues  of  her  great  men,  we  must  not  also  debit 
her  with  the  vices  of  her  small  ones,  can  best  be 
answered,  like  those  we  have  already  considered, 
by  discovering  what  is  the  main  trend  of  American 
development,  and  then  ascertaining  whether  that 
course  of  evolution  Is  such  as  must  lead  to  the  elim- 
ination of  the  vices  which  have  flourished  among 
Americans.  Freedom  Is  always  dangerous,  because 
there  are  always  vicious  propensities  In  human  na- 
ture, and  the  absence  of  outward  restraint  is  natu- 
rally conducive  to  their  manifestation.  America,  in 
the  few  decades  of  her  youthful  life  which  have  thus 
far  elapsed,  has  had  to  suffer  the  penalty  of  her 


SWEARING   ALLEGIANCE  93 

daring  faith  in  man.  She  has  been  the  land  of  "  wil- 
ful men,"  of  unbridled  individualism.  The  bestowal 
of  almost  unlimited  opportunity  has  led  hosts  of 
men  to  think  in  terms  of  their  own  aggrandizement, 
and  to  care  little  or  nothing  for  the  general  well- 
being.  Yet  the  history  of  the  last  forty  years  has 
shown  conclusively  that  this  anti-social  egoism  is 
hostile  to  the  real  trend  of  America,  and  that,  unless 
it  be  eliminated,  the  American  spirit  itself  must 
perish.  Hence  have  followed  the  many  movements 
of  education  and  legislation  to  bridle  the  wild  self- 
assertion  of  the  individualist,  and  to  inculcate  —  if 
need  be  by  force  —  the  truth  that  men  must  care 
first  for  the  Republic. 

Hence,  too,  springs  the  conclusion  that  the  virtues 
of  Lincoln  exemplify  that  in  America  which  is  truly 
American,  whereas  the  vices  that  are  common 
amongst  us  are  extraneous  and  hostile  to  the  spirit 
of  the  nation.  The  good  is  constitutional  and  or- 
ganic; the  bad  is  of  the  nature  of  disease,  which  is 
no  more  American,  even  when  it  is  epidemic  among 
our  population,  than  a  cancer  is  a  normal  part  of  the 
human  body  in  which  it  grows,  and  which,  if  not 
removed,  it  must  destroy. 

To  this  Living  Spirit,  then,  our  allegiance  is 
sworn. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE   AMERICAN    EXPERIMENT 

WHEN  God  decided  to  make  man  in  His  own 
image,  He  must  have  had  His  misgivings. 
The  venture  of  creating  a  being  capable  of  revolting 
against  his  Creator  was  undeniably  a  daring  one. 
It  is  magnanimous,  but  slightly  reckless,  for  a  God 
to  impart  His  own  divine  freedom  and  power  of 
initiative  to  a  new  spirit,  who  will  in  all  probability 
misuse  it.  And  yet,  when  one  comes  to  think  of  it, 
there  is  quite  a  good  deal  to  be  said  in  God's  jus- 
tification. Think  of  the  boredom  of  a  solitary 
eternity!  What  is  the  use  of  being  God  if  there  is 
nobody  to  be  aware  of  the  fact?  Where  is  the  ad- 
vantage of  possessing  infinite  wisdom,  if  there  is  no 
finite  folly  to  give  rise  to  situations  that  will  necessi- 
tate its  exercise?  And  surely  it  would  be  otiose  to 
be  endowed  with  perfect  justice,  love  and  mercy,  if 
through  all  eternity  there  are  to  be  no  injustices  to 
set  right,  no  enmities  to  be  overcome,  no  crimes  to 
be  forgiven.  In  one  of  the  Roman  Catholic  litur- 
gies, there  is  a  reference  to  the  sin  of  Adam  as 
"  certe  necessariiim,^^  "  clearly  necessary."  One 
may  be  disposed  to  credit  the  formulator  of  this 
phrase  with  a  brilliant  sense  of  humour;  but  at  the 
same  time  one  must  admit  that  he  had  great  psycho- 
logical insight.     God's  Godship  could  only  be  dis- 


THE   AMERICAN   EXPERIMENT      95 

played  in  relation  to  lesser  beings  who  should  defy 
it,  and  its  triumph  could  only  come  about  when  those 
beings  had  freely,  and  of  their  own  motion,  accepted 
it  and  made  its  eternal  and  inherent  law  the  law  of 
their  own  will. 

This  little  excursus  into  theology  (which  I  trust 
is  not  seriously  unorthodox)  leads  us  on  to  the  justi- 
fication for  the  daring  experiment  called  democracy, 
and  particularly  for  that  highly  advanced  instance 
of  democracy  which  we  call  the  American  Common- 
wealth. The  unification  of  the  human  race  in  the 
bonds  of  peace  and  fraternal  co-operation  has  been 
the  dream  of  thinkers  throughout  the  ages,  and 
many  notable  attempts  have  been  made  to  translate 
the  dream  into  actuality.  But  about  all  the  efforts 
hitherto  made  there  have  been  two  fatal  defects. 
One  was,  that  the  world-wide  brotherhood  was  ex- 
pected to  be  brought  about  by  some  single  agency; 
the  other  was,  that  those  by  whom  it  was  to  be 
effected  thought  that  they  were  to  become  and  to 
remain  the  dominant  force  in  the  world,  and  that  to 
their  benevolent  purposes  the  rest  of  mankind  were 
to  submit  willy-nilly. 

Thus,  for  instance,  the  ancient  Jews,  with  the 
noblest  intentions  in  the  world,  aspired  to  become 
the  leaders  of  the  human  race.  They  thought  of 
themselves  as  "  chosen  "  for  this  purpose.  Dut,  un- 
fortunately, they  fell  into  the  habit  of  thinking  that 
they  were  chosen  for  their  own  sake,  rather  than 
for  that  of  the  other  peoples;  and  they  were  also 
convinced  that  all  other  nations  would  have  to  accept 
their  doctrines  on  the  subject  of  God  and  His  laws, 


96     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

and  to  look  upon  their  capital  city,  Jerusalem,  as 
the  metropolis  of  the  universe.  It  was  painfully 
easy  for  their  national  egotism  thus  to  mar  an  Ideal 
which  in  principle  was  entirely  admirable. 

Nothing  is  so  insidious  as  the  temptation  to  na- 
tional self-righteousness,  and  the  belief  in  your  own 
people's  superiority  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  You 
display  this  perversion  of  your  ideal  the  moment 
when,  —  not  content  with  believing  in  your  own 
God  and  insisting  that  your  own  people  shall  have 
none  others  before  Him,  — you  go  on  to  insult  the 
Gods  of  the  other  peoples,  and  declare  that  they 
are  nothing  but  idols.  You  can  never  get  your 
neighbour  to  give  an  impartial  and  dispassionate 
consideration  to  the  claims  of  your  own  God  until 
you  have  shown  yourself  capable  of  a  courteous  and 
respectful  estimate  of  his.  When,  like  the  ancient 
Jews,  you  go  the  length  of  insisting  that  you  will 
not  even  eat  with  your  neighbours,  or  recognize 
them  as  entitled  to  spiritual  equality  with  yourself, 
unless  they  adopt  your  tribal  customs  as  permanently 
binding  upon  them,  your  ideal  is  fundamentally  per- 
verted, and  all  chance  of  Its  realization  goes  glim- 
mering. —  Such  I  take  to  have  been  the  gist  of  the 
criticism  which  St.  Paul  found  himself  constrained 
to  offer  to  his  apostolic  colleagues  in  the  Jerusalem 
Church. 

Christianity,  under  the  inspiration  of  St.  Paul's 
common  sense  and  relatively  humane  catholicity, 
made  a  memorable  effort  to  revamp  the  Jewish  Ideal, 
purged  of  its  narrowness  and  Intolerance.  And,  of 
all  the  efforts   thus   far  made  to  bring  about  the 


THE   AMERICAN   EXPERIMENT      97 

spiritual  unification  of  the  human  race,  Christianity 
has  been  the  most  widely  and  permanently  success- 
ful. Nothing  but  hostility  or  historical  illiteracy 
could  make  it  possible  to  deny  this.  No  other  re- 
ligion and  no  political  system  has  drawn  and  held 
together  so  many  different  racial  and  national  types, 
or  succeeded  so  remarkably  in  adapting  itself  to  the 
imperious  demands  of  such  habitually  self-assertive 
and  unruly  peoples.  Buddhism  has  been  a  practical 
failure  outside  Asia,  its  gospel  of  resignation  and 
quiescent  passivity  being  totally  unadaptable  to  the 
turbulent,  forward-looking,  chronically  discontented 
peoples  of  Europe,  who,  in  virtue  of  these  char- 
acteristics, have  beaten  out  the  road  of  human  prog- 
ress and  led  the  way  over  it  for  the  last  two  thou- 
sand years.  Mohammedanism  has  in  similar  fashion 
failed,  both  because  of  the  bloodthirsty  method  of 
propaganda  which  its  founder  adopted,  and  because 
of  the  system  of  despotic  government  to  which  it 
always  leans.  The  appeal  of  Christianity  to  the  in- 
dividual, its  assertion  of  his  unconditional  precious- 
ness,  its  demand  that  he  shall  work  out  his  own 
salvation,  and  its  ineradicable  principle  that  no 
man's  allegiance  is  worth  anything  unless  it  is  volun- 
tary and  unconstrained,  made  it  adaptable  to  many 
more  of  the  exigencies  of  the  historic  situation,  and 
to  many  more  racial  and  national  types,  than  any  of 
its  rivals  could  cope  with. 

But  every  ideal  undergoes  some  perversion  in  the 
effort  to  actualize  it;  and  the  Christian  experiment 
suffered  by  getting  itself  mixed  up  with  the  tradi- 
tions  and  methods   of   Roman  imperialism.     The 


98     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

Roman  Empire  was  a  notable,  and  in  some  ways 
a  highly  successful,  attempt  at  the  unification  of  man- 
kind. Its  area  was  practically  co-extensive  with  the 
known  world,  and  wherever  it  went  it  contributed 
largely,  at  least  in  externals,  to  the  civilization  of 
the  peoples  it  subdued.  Its  weakness  lay  in  the  fact 
that  its  one  fundamental  method  was  the  imposition 
of  force.  Although  its  object  was  to  unify,  it  sought 
to  rule  by  dividing.  The  difficulty,  when  you  set  out 
to  establish  a  world-empire  by  such  methods,  Is  that 
you  must  always  be  stronger  than  any  possible  com- 
bination of  those  whom  you  oppress;  and  that  is  a 
condition  which  no  human  organization  has  ever 
been  able  permanently  to  fulfil. 

In  its  later  years,  the  Roman  Empire  became 
conscious  of  this  weakness,  and  began  to  cast  about 
for  some  mode  of  discipline  which  would  enlist  the 
voluntary  loyalty  of  its  widely  scattered  subjects. 
Hence  Constantine's  adoption  of  Christianity  as 
the  State  religion.  He  and  his  advisers  displayed 
great  sagacity  in  selecting  this  system  of  doctrine 
and  discipline;  but  their  inspiration  came  too  late 
to  achieve  that  particular  kind  of  success  which  they 
desired.  Nevertheless,  the  course  of  history  has 
demonstrated  the  soundness  of  their  political  in- 
stinct. We  may  say,  indeed,  that  they  got  more 
than  they  bargained  for,  although  not  precisely  what 
they  needed  or  expected.  They  set  up  an  Institution 
which  was  not  able,  indeed,  to  avert  the  political 
collapse  of  the  Empire,  but  which  was  able  to  secure 
a  secular  immortality  for  the  spirit  of  the  Empire 
after   its   body  had   been   destroyed.      It  was   the 


THE   AMERICAN   EXPERIMENT      99 

Church  which,  alone  of  Roman  institutions,  inspired 
awe  and  reverence  among  the  barbarian  conquerors, 
and  thus  became  the  channel  through  which  was 
mediated  to  them  such  part  of  the  heritage  of 
Graeco-Roman  civilization  as  survived  the  deluge. 

Unfortunately,  however,  as  the  Empire  became 
Christianized,  Christianity  became  imperialized. 
The  Papacy,  although  for  the  most  part  it  refrained 
from  the  direct  use  of  the  sword  as  an  instrument 
of  spiritual  suasion,  nevertheless  did  rely  upon  force 
and  constraint  for  the  establishment  of  its  world- 
wide dominance.  The  creeds  which  men  were  forced 
to  accept,  the  forms  of  worship  which  they  might 
not  criticise  or  revise,  the  hierarchical  organization, 
run  by  Rome,  which  imposed  itself  according  to  a 
uniform  type  upon  all  the  nations,  —  these  were 
the  methods  employed;  and  in  these  there  was  as 
much  of  force  (although  of  force  in  a  different 
guise)  as  in  the  methods  of  Julius  Caesar  and  his 
successors.  It  was  by  adopting  these  devices  and 
modelling  itself  too  closely  upon  imperial  precedents 
that  the  Church  lost  its  hold  of  the  genius  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  this  had  been  understood  and  applied  by 
Jesus  and  St.  Paul;  and  it  was  because  of  this  sub- 
stitution of  imperial  Roman  for  Christian  methods 
that  the  great  experiment  of  the  Catholic  Church 
ultimately  failed. 

With  one  hand,  the  Church  propagated  a  doc- 
trine of  freedom  and  spiritual  autonomy.  This  it 
could  not  suppress  without  destroying  the  New 
Testament  and  losing  altogether  the  Christian 
character.     But  meanwhile,  with  the  other  hand,  it 


100     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

imposed  the  constraints  and  outward  rule  of  a  world- 
empire  of  the  old  type.  The  institution  of  the  In- 
quisition is  at  once  the  evidence  of  the  Church's 
widest  departure  from  the  genius  of  Christianity, 
and  the  confession  of  its  greatest  failure.  These 
instruments  of  coercive  imperialism  could  be  em- 
ployed successfully  only  during  the  boyhood,  so  to 
speak,  of  the  new  nations  that  arose  out  of  the 
politically  dismembered  body  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire; but  as  soon  as  the  most  advanced  of  those 
nations  had  grown  to  something  like  maturity,  the 
long-postponed  struggle  between  the  two  principles 
broke  out,  and  the  Christian  element  in  the  synthesis 
renewed  its  claim  to  precedence.  First  in  England, 
then  in  Bohemia,  and  long  afterwards  in  Germany, 
the  standard  of  revolt  was  raised;  and  the  battle 
ended  in  the  emancipation  of  the  two  most  progres- 
sive races  of  Europe  from  the  transformed  Roman 
dominion  which  had  been  exercised  by  the  Pope. 

No  scholar  now  needs  to  be  told  that  the  changes 
in  theological  doctrine,  which  began  in  England  in 
the  fourteenth  century  and  were  consummated  there 
and  in  Germany  in  the  sixteenth,  were  the  merest 
accidents  and  incidents  of  the  historic  development, 
the  essence  of  which  was  the  struggle  of  the  claim 
for  spiritual  freedom  and  national  autonomy,  against 
the  cosmopolitan  despotism  of  the  Papal  system. 

But  meantime  the  revolted  nations  had  them- 
selves lost  sight  of  another  vital  element  In  the 
Christian  Ideal.  They  had  forgotten  that  In  the 
purpose  of  Its  founders  the  Christian  movement 
was  Intended  to  bring  about  the  establishment  of 


THE   AMERICAN   EXPERIMENT      loi 

just  relations  among  men  in  this  world.  Jesus  and 
St.  Paul  were  out  for  the  establishment  of  a  real 
kingdom.  They  used  this  word  not  as  a.  iir-fe'iched 
figure  of  speech,  but  to  describe  actual  huijifin.'SQ-. 
ciety;  and  their  goal  was  not  the  supersession  but  the 
salvation  of  the  world.  It  was  not  for  nothing  that 
they  had  inherited  the  Jewish  tradition,  which  had 
never  wholly  lost  itself  in  dreams  and  speculations 
about  the  life  after  death.  Although  they  perceived 
the  necessity  for  freedom,  and  understood  that  no 
enforced  allegiance  could  be  worth  while,  they  never 
fell  into  the  anarchistic  heresy  of  thinking  the  gov- 
ernmental organization  of  society  useless  or  sinful 
or  pernicious.  Their  millennium  was  a  just  and 
righteous  organization  of  the  life  of  men  and 
women,  of  cities  and  States,  in  this  world.  However 
fantastic  may  have  been  their  conception  of  the 
means  by  which  this  consummation  was  to  be 
reached,  there  was  nothing  preternatural  in  the  end 
which  they  proposed  to  themselves. 

After  their  death,  however,  the  world  suffered 
from  an  epidemic  of  pessimism.  Four  centuries 
after  Jesus  and  St.  Paul,  St.  Augustine  had  given 
up  this  world  as  a  bad  job,  and  had  perverted  the 
healthy  and  hopeful  idealism  of  the  founders  of  his 
faith  into  a  doctrine  which  consigned  all  human 
society  to  merited  destruction,  and  looked  only  for  a 
civitas  Dei  to  be  established  in  another  world  after 
death.  St.  Augustine  was  a  thinker  of  massive  in- 
tellect and  the  master  of  a  tremendously  effective 
literary  style;  he  was  also  (like  most  men)  an  epit- 
ome  of  the  prevailing  temperament  and   outlook 


102     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  which  was  an  age  of 
ruin  and  collapse.  He  therefore  proved  more  per- 
suasive to  his  contemporaries  and  successors  than 
Jesus  and  St.  Paul  were  any  longer  able  to  be.  It 
transpired,  accordingly,  that  when,  centuries  later, 
the  new  spirit  broke  out  in  England  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent, the  leaders  of  the  movement  of  revolt,  al- 
though they  had  instinctively  got  hold  of  the  Chris- 
tian end  of  the  stick,  were  bluffed  out  of  their  own 
intuition  by  the  terrifying  ghost  of  the  Augustinian 
conception  of  mankind  and  its  fate.  They  there- 
fore continued  to  locate  their  goal  in  the  clouds,  and 
construed  their  religion  as  a  method  of  escaping 
from  hell  and  attaining  to  heaven;  —  always  with 
the  misunderstanding  that  the  hell  to  be  escaped 
was  not  the  wretched  state  of  society  in  which  they 
then  lived,  but  something  still  worse  after  death; 
and  that  the  heaven  to  be  attained  was  not  the  state 
of  society  into  which  their  own  might  be  trans- 
formed, but  something  unspeakably  beatific  into 
which  they  were  to  be  admitted  after  death,  pro- 
vided they  had  previously  established  the  right  kind 
of  relations  with  its  authorities. 

From  this  it  followed  that  the  Protestant  reform- 
ers misunderstood  the  very  inspiration  by  force  of 
which  they  were  working,  and  that  the  nations  which 
accepted  their  guidance  came  to  conceive  of  reli- 
gion almost  exclusively  as  a  direct,  unmediated  rela- 
tion betw^een  the  individual  souls  of  men  and  the 
transcendent  God.  Christianity  was  dwarfed  and 
atrophied  into  a  mere  system  of  prayer,  worship 
and  preparation  for  the  hereafter.     The  plain  and 


THE   AMERICAN   EXPERIMENT      103 

striking  reminders  of  very  different  functions  which 
survived  in  the  structure  of  the  Church  shrank  to 
the  proportions  of  rudimentary  organs,  the  meaning 
of  which  had  been  forgotten.  With  the  unmistak- 
able language  of  the  Book  of  Acts  and  the  Pauline 
Epistles  staring  them  in  the  face,  men  obliviously 
denied  that  Christianity  had  any  rightful  connec- 
tion with  government,  politics,  taxation  and  the 
organization  of  national  life.  Things  that  to  the 
Christian  founders  were  altogether  secondary  or 
tertiary  have  in  the  last  three  hundred  years  been 
made  primary  in  religion;  —  questions,  that  is,  con- 
cerning minutiae  of  doctrine,  the  kind  of  club-houses 
in  which  Christian  societies  should  meet,  or  the  pre- 
cise method  of  attiring  their  officials  and  conducting 
the  proceedings  of  the  assembly. 

So  far  had  this  perversion  gone  that  when,  in  our 
own  time,  thinkers  like  Sir  John  Seeley  ^  and  Canon 
Fremantle  ^  began  to  show,  from  the  actual  lan- 
guage of  the  New  Testament  (which  we  were 
supposed  to  have  been  reading  all  our  lives),  that 
government  and  national  organization  were  the  pri- 
mary things  that  the  early  Christian  leaders  had  set 
themselves  to  establish  or  to  permeate  by  their  spirit, 
we  felt  as  though  we  were  listening  to  something 
altogether  new  and  strange  and  heretical. 

Thus  the  Augustinian  and  Protestant  perversions 
have  caused  men  to  lose  sight  of  religion  as  a  means 
to  the  spiritual  unification  of  mankind  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  just  order  of  human  society  on  earth. 

*  In  Ecce  Homo  and  "Natural  Religion. 

*  In  The  World  as  the  Subject  of  Redemption. 


I04     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

Among  the  many  regrettable  consequences  of  this 
is  the  necessity,  under  which  I  labour  at  this  mo- 
ment, of  reminding  the  reader  that  the  American 
experiment  in  nation-building  is  an  undertaking  iden- 
tical in  all  essential  respects  with  the  life-work  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  enterprise  which  He  entrusted 
to  His  followers;  —  even  though  it  may  differ  in 
some  secondary  details  from  this,  its  greatest  historic 
precedent. 

Yet  surely  it  is  evident  that  when  we  speak  of  an 
order  of  ideally  just  relations  among  men,  to  be 
established  on  the  basis  of  individual  freedom  and 
collective  autonomy,  we  are  using  words  which  de- 
scribe with  close  precision  both  the  Christian  enter- 
prise, as  it  is  depicted  for  us  in  the  works  of  St.  Paul 
and  the  Evangelists,  and  the  Commonwealth  which 
the  fathers  of  this  Republic  sketched  out  and  began 
to  actualize  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  loyalty  of  the  Christian  to  God  was  an  alle- 
giance to  an  invisible  and  intangible  but  nevertheless 
real  Power,  the  inherent  Power  of  Righteousness 
which  makes  for  fullness  of  life,  and  which  must 
be  unconditionally  obeyed,  upon  peril  of  the  failure 
of  the  whole  enterprise  of  the  human  race.  The 
loyalty  of  the  American  is  offered,  in  similar  fashion, 
to  an  ideal,  which  qua  ideal  is  indisputably  real,  and 
which  cannot  be  seriously  swerved  from  except  at 
the  cost  of  wrecking  the  purpose  with  which  the 
Republic  established  itself  in  the  world.  America 
(as  we  learned  in  the  previous  chapter  from  Mr. 
Franklin  Lane)  is  a  living  spirit,  with  a  will  and 
purposes  of  its  own.     It  is  the  first  great  effort  in 


THE   AMERICAN   EXPERIMENT      105 

history  towards  the  spiritual  unification  of  the 
human  race  which  has  not  been  marred  by  the  two 
defects  to  which,  a  few  pages  back,  I  drew  the  atten- 
tion of  the  reader.  It  does  not  attempt  to  produce 
the  fraternal  organization  of  the  entire  world  by 
its  single  agency,  nor  does  it  imply  that  the  Ameri- 
can people,  or  any  class  or  group  of  them,  are  to 
hold  a  position  of  hegemony  or  mastery  in  the  world- 
organization  which  is  sketched  and  prefigured  in  the 
federal  Republic. 

Instead  of  the  too  colossal  task  of  organizing 
the  whole  earth  by  one  agency  upon  a  single  prin- 
ciple, the  American  experiment  confines  itself  to 
furnishing  an  example  and  working  model,  upon 
which  other  cognate  agencies  may  pattern  them- 
selves, in  their  own  time,  according  to  their  own 
judgment,  and  with  whatever  modifications  they 
desire.  It  demonstrates  how,  by  means  of  a  new 
socio-political  invention,  men  of  all  races  and  na- 
tionalities can  weld  themselves  into  a  voluntary 
unity,  and  how  all  the  differences  of  culture-type, 
religious  creed,  and  racial  or  national  aspiration, 
which  have  hitherto  constituted  impassable  barriers 
to  such  unification,  can  be  turned  into  fraternal  bonds 
and  made  to  contribute  to  the  enrichment  of  the 
whole.  It  shows  how  this  can  be  done  without  im- 
posing undesired  constraint  upon  any  element  of  the 
synthesis;  but  rather  by  according  to  each  of  those 
elements  a  fuller  measure  of  liberty  and  self-expres- 
sion than  they  had  previously  enjoyed. 

This  new  invention  is  the  Federal  system,  which 
is  as  truly  a  product  of  American  ingenuity  as  the 


io6     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

telephone  or  the  linotype  machine.  The  plan  of 
creating  an  indissoluble  union  of  indestructible  prov- 
inces, each  of  which  enjoys  complete  autonomy  on 
all  matters  save  those  in  which  it  is  vitally  depend- 
ent upon  or  interdependent  with  the  others,  was  a 
new  piece  of  governmental  mechanism.  The  bless- 
ing, the  enormous  and  inestimable  blessing,  which 
it  has  brought  to  the  world  has  been  the  demonstra- 
tion that  the  obstacles  to  human  fraternity  which 
hitherto  have  always  been  found  insurmountable 
can  be  scaled.  Demands  for  different  kinds  of  lib- 
erty, different  modes  of  self-realization,  which  else- 
where have  led  to  hatred  and  war,  can  be  har- 
monized. Not  only  can  the  desire  of  each  element 
for  its  own  type  of  theological  creed  and  religious 
expression  be  gratified,  but,  through  the  mutual  con- 
frontation of  all  the  creeds  on  a  footing  of  equality, 
the  points  which,  exacerbated  by  strife  and  rivalry, 
have  elsewhere  assumed  an  adventitious  importance, 
sink  naturally  and  easily  Into  a  position  of  relative 
insignificance. 

Under  our  Constitution  it  is  possible  for  every 
type  of  social  organization,  every  scheme  of  muni- 
cipal government,  every  method  of  advancing  science 
or  overcoming  specific  evils,  which  in  Europe  has 
been  found  successful,  to  be  appropriated  and  util- 
ized. We  can  adopt  or  adapt  whatever  attracts  us 
in  English  democracy  or  philosophy  or  religion, 
without  having  to  take  with  it  the  stratified,  semi- 
feudal  arrangement  of  society  which  still  survives 
in  England.  We  can  borrow  from  Germany  what- 
ever is  useful  in  its  municipal  developments  and  in 


THE   AMERICAN   EXPERIMENT      107 

its  applications  of  science,  and  whatever  we  may 
choose  of  its  philosophy  and  poetry,  without  having 
to  import  with  these  the  curse  of  Germany  —  the 
intensely  militarized  and  centralized  policy  of  the 
Prussian  State,  and  its  doctrine  of  the  divine  and 
indefeasible  authority  of  an  hereditary  monarch. 
By  reason  of  the  multiplicity  of  our  centres  of  legis- 
lative authority,  we  can  try,  on  a  limited  scale,  ex- 
periments in  the  suppression  of  disease,  the  preven- 
tion of  bad  heredity,  or  the  removal  of  capitalized 
vice,  or  new  devices  in  government,  taxation,  and 
the  control  of  industry  and  property,  which  if  suc- 
cessful can  afterwards  be  adopted  by  the  nation  as  a 
whole,  or  which,  if  they  fail,  can  be  abandoned,  after 
affecting  only  the  single  autonomous  unit  which  un- 
dertook them. 

And  withal,  and  more  than  all,  we  have  eradi- 
cated from  this  great  area  of  the  North  American 
Continent  even  the  possibility  of  warfare.  Never 
again  will  the  American  people  be  rent  asunder  by 
civil  strife.  The  fact  that  each  of  our  provinces  is 
sovereign  within  its  own  borders,  and  at  the  same 
time  is  a  constituent  of  the  central  Government,  en- 
sures us  against  the  possibility  of  a  disaster  like  the 
European  conflict  occurring  among  us.  Each  of  our 
States  enjoys  all  the  liberty  that  any  European 
people  could  reasonably  desire,  and  yet  is  exempt 
both  from  the  temptation  to  aggress  upon  its  neigh- 
bours and  from  the  possibility  of  its  neighbours 
aggressing  upon  it.  None  can  secede  from  the 
Union;  but  none  can  be  deprived  of  the  benefits  for 
the  sake  of  which  it  entered  the  Union.     Each,  in- 


io8     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

deed,  Is  encircled  by  all  the  others;  but  encirclement 
is  no  bad  thing  when  it  has  been  voluntarily  chosen 
and  can  by  no  possibility  be  used  as  a  means  of  in- 
jury. If  ever  the  present  distribution  of  local  sover- 
eignty should  be  modified,  it  can  only  be  with  the 
spontaneous  assent  of  the  areas  affected,  and  in  the 
interest  of  a  yet  closer  union,  a  more  perfect 
freedom. 

What  an  object-lesson  for  Europe!  What  a 
glorious  presage  of  the  future  federation  of  the 
world!  No  myth,  no  Utopia,  no  dream  out  of  the 
ivory  gate,  but  an  actual  living,  working,  triumphant 
commonwealth;  the  creation  neither  of  transcendent 
virtue  nor  of  miraculous  assistance,  but  simply  of 
common  sense,  democracy  and  humane  reason. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE    FALLACY    OF   THE    MELTING-POT 

WHY  does  not  somebody,  other  than  a  pro- 
fessor of  logic,  write  us  a  book  on  The  Ty- 
ranny of  Words?  Nothing  is  more  needed;  for  in 
every  department  of  thought,  from  theology  and 
philosophy  to  parochial  politics,  we  are  misled  and 
obfuscated  by  metaphors  and  figures  of  speech.  We 
need  a  book  written  by  a  layman  for  laymen.  There 
are  plenty  of  logic-books  already,  but  nobody  ever 
reads  them  except  under  compulsion,  —  unless  it  be 
brother-logicians  anxious  to  confute  their  profes- 
sional rivals.  I  verily  believe  that  serious  mischief 
has  been  caused  to  the  historic  development  of 
America  by  the  influence  of  two  or  three  figurative 
phrases  which  have  masqueraded  in  our  minds  as 
literal  descriptions  of  fact. 

I.  Take,  for  one  example,  the  fanciful  phrase 
fastened  for  all  time  upon  this  Continent  by  its  dis- 
coverers and  early  explorers :  the  phrase  "  New 
World."  Little  did  the  inventor  of  that  unlucky 
term  dream  of  the  harm  he  was  perpetrating.  It 
could  not  have  occurred  to  him  that  this  innocent 
little  flight  of  his  imagination  would  survive  to  pro- 
duce in  future  generations  a  radically  false  sense  of 
their  own  nature  and  position  in  the  world,  and  of 
their  relation  to  Europe  and  to  the  past.     And  yet 


no     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

this  Is  what  it  has  done.  Popular  thinking  In  this 
country  has  been  unconsciously  distorted  for  more 
than  a  century  by  the  Illusion  that  America  bears  to 
Europe  a  relation  analogous  to  that  In  which  the 
moon  stands  to  the  earth.  We  have  Imagined 
that  we  could  make  what  use  we  liked  of  Europe 
as  a  happy  hunting-ground  for  our  trippers,  as  a 
market,  and  as  a  source  of  recruits  for  our  popu- 
lation, but  that,  at  the  same  time,  we  could  arrange 
our  foreign  policy  and  determine  our  own  future 
evolution  on  the  supposition  that  Europe  did  not 
exist,  or  at  all  events  that  it  need  not  be  considered 
by  us. 

This  fallacious  Idea  of  newness,  too,  led  us  to 
Ignore  our  own  roots  In  the  past,  to  think  of  our- 
selves much  as  Adam  may  be  supposed  to  have 
thought  of  himself,  and  to  write  our  history  not 
from  753  b.  c.  or  SS  B.  c.  or  800  A.  d.  (where  It 
ought  to  begin),  but  from  1776,  or  1619,  or,  at 
farthest,  from  1492  A.  D.  We  have  been  oblivious 
of  the  psychological  and  historic  truth  that  America 
became  a  part  of  Europe  the  moment  the  keels  of 
Columbus  entered  the  waters  of  the  Gulf,  and  con- 
sequently that  Its  history  Is  an  organic  growth  from 
that  of  Europe,  without  familiarity  with  which  It  is 
unintelligible. 

2.  In  the  same  way,  the  celebrated  metaphor 
about  *'  entangling  alliances,"  employed  In  regard 
to  a  particular  and  transient  conjuncture  of  circum- 
stances by  Washington,  has  muddied  the  waters  of 
our  thought,  and  thereby  has  affected  our  national 
decisions  In  an  Injurious   fashion.     Whenever  we 


FALLACY   OF  THE   MELTING-POT     iii 

quote  or  think  of  those  words,  the  picture  of  a  net 
projects  itself  before  our  eyes.  We  dream  that  the 
alternative  confronting  us  is  that  of  either  keeping 
our  feet  completely  out  of  its  meshes,  by  making 
no  alliances  with  foreign  Powers,  or  of  walking 
into  the  net  by  contracting  alliances  and  getting 
tripped  up. 

But  the  truth  is  that  it  is  only  a  treaty,  an  alliance, 
—  a  definite  understanding  and  specific  working 
agreement,  —  which  can  save  us  from  becoming 
entangled.  We  are  knit  to  the  other  nations  of  the 
world  by  a  thousand  strands  of  common  descent, 
culture,  religion,  commerce,  and  mutual  aid  through 
science  and  art.  These  relations  are  inevitable,  and 
inevitably  destined  to  become  yet  closer  and  more 
Intricate.  By  letting  things  drift,  by  obstinately  re- 
fusing to  come  to  any  understanding  as  to  the  value 
we  place  upon  these  bonds,  or  to  state  under  what 
conditions  and  to  what  extent  we  are  willing  to  join 
with  others  in  preserving  them,  we  become  auto- 
matically entangled.  We  are  under  obligations  to 
various  European  nations,  of  indefinite  amount  and 
unspecified  character;  and  they  are  in  similar  fashion 
indebted  to  us.  The  only  way  (as  any  business 
man  would  at  once  recognize)  to  avoid  entangle- 
ment, to  prevent  the  raising  of  expectations  which 
we  do  not  intend  to  gratify,  and  to  escape  being 
charged  with  ingratitude  or  suspecting  others  of 
ingratitude  to  us,  is  to  come  to  a  clear  understanding 
upon  the  whole  matter,  and  then  to  ratify  it  in  writ- 
ing. And  this  is,  in  all  probability,  what  our  share 
in  the  European  War,  and  still  more  our  share  in 


112     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

the  world-agreement  by  which  it  must  be  terminated, 
will  constrain  us  to  do. 

It  was  repeated  a  thousand  times  by  Americans 
(before  they  had  found  Germany  out)  that  the 
great  war  was  brought  about  by  the  entanglements 
of  the  European  peoples  with  one  another.  The 
idea  apparently  was  that  if  the  Entente  Cordiale  be- 
tween France  and  England  had  not  existed,  or  if 
France  and  Russia  had  not  been  committed  to  each 
other,  or  if  the  Triple  Alliance  had  not  led  Germany 
to  imagine  that  she  could  count  upon  Italy's  assist- 
ance in  prosecuting  her  aggressive  designs,  the  war 
would  not  have  broken  out.  I  affirm,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  the  war  occurred  because  there  were  not 
enough  treaties  and  alliances  among  the  nations, 
and  because  those  treaties  that  did  exist  were  for 
the  most  part  not  truly  national,  having  been  made 
in  secret  by  persons  and  cliques  who  were  not  repre- 
sentative. Had  each  nation  been  isolated,  there 
would  have  been  many  wars,  long  before  this  one 
occurred.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  exact  relations 
between  England,  France  and  Russia  had  been 
known  to  all  Englishmen,  Frenchmen  and  Russians, 
and  above  all  to  Germany;  —  if  Germany  had 
known  for  a  certainty  that  she  would  have  England 
and  Italy  as  her  active  enemies,  instead  of  England 
neutral  and  Italy  on  her  side; — and,  more  espe- 
cially, if  she  had  been  informed  beforehand  that 
her  methods  of  warfare  would  infallibly  draw  the 
United  States  into  the  field  against  her;  —  it  is  mor- 
ally certain  that  the  peace  would  have  remained  un- 
broken.    When  we  say  that  Germany  wanted  war, 


FALLACY   OF  THE   MELTING-POT     113 

we  speak,  I  believe,  the  sober  truth;  but  that  does 
not  mean  that  she  wanted  such  a  war.  What  Ger- 
many wanted  was  the  victory  of  which  her  unex- 
pected enemies  —  first  England,  then  Italy,  and 
lastly  this  country  —  have  come  in  to  deprive  her. 
Now,  a  thorough  public  understanding  would  have 
made  it  certain  in  advance  that  the  war  would  be 
a  universal  disaster,  and  that  the  aggressor  would 
be  crushed  instead  of  obtaining  from  it  the  plunder 
he  desired. 

The  President,  although  under  the  influence  of 
the  American  tradition  he  felt  constrained  to  say 
(on  January  22nd,  1917),  "I  am  proposing  that 
all  nations  henceforth  avoid  entangling  alliances," 
yet  showed  that  he  had  grasped  the  truth  for  which 
I  am  here  contending  when  he  added,  "  There  is 
no  entangling  alliance  in  a  concert  of  power."  Alli- 
ances are  entangling  only  when  they  are  indefinite, 
secret,  or  made  by  persons  who,  not  being  vested 
with  democratic  authority,  do  not  represent  their 
nations.  When  these  conditions  are  avoided,  written 
treaties  are  the  one  way  of  preventing  the  entangle- 
ments which  arise  from  the  indefinite,  unwritten 
alliances  of  blood  and  benefit  that  exist,  and  must 
exist,  between  us  and  Europe. 

3.  Another  of  the  verbal  images  by  which,  within 
the  last  few  years,  our  minds  have  been  led  astray 
from  the  right  track  of  thought.  Is  the  one  which 
Mr.  Zangwill  selected  for  the  title  of  his  celebrated 
play,  "  The  Melting-Pot."  It  would  be  unfair,  of 
course,  to  hold  Mr.  Zangwill  responsible  either  for 
this  term  or  for  the  mental  muddle  which  it  stands 


114     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

for  and  which  it  tends  to  perpetuate.  Both  things 
originated  in  America.  During  his  brief  and  hurried 
visits  to  this  country,  Mr.  Zangwill  heard  his  Amer- 
ican friends  use  the  word  "  melting-pot "  to  describe 
what  is  going  on  here  as  a  result  of  our  tremendous 
and  heterogeneous  immigration.  It  was  no  part  of 
Mr.  Zangwill's  business  as  a  dramatist  to  think  the 
situation  out  or  to  put  us  right  in  our  sociology. 
That  we  must  do  for  ourselves.  Nevertheless,  one 
cannot  but  regret  that  he  lent  the  apparent  sanction 
of  his  keen  Intellect  and  his  brilliant  reputation  to  a 
figure  of  speech  which,  instead  of  directing  us  into 
the  true  path,  points  us  clean  away  from  it. 

I  do  not  desire  to  quarrel  with  anybody  over  a 
mere  phrase.  The  word  "  melting-pot "  would  not 
be  of  the  slightest  importance,  were  it  not  for  the 
fundamental  errors  which  it  masks,  and  for  the  limit- 
less consequences  to  which  these  errors  may  give  rise. 
We  must  therefore  ask  ourselves  what  the  term  sug- 
gests to  our  minds,  and  whether  it  is  true  that  the 
human  Increment  which  we  have  imported  from 
abroad  does  undergo  a  process  in  any  way  compar- 
able to  the  melting  of  metal  and  its  subsequent  work- 
ing up  into  pre-determined  shapes.  We  must  ask 
further  whether  it  is  possible  for  the  invisible,  in- 
tangible thing  which  we  call  consciousness,  personal- 
ity, humanity,  to  receive  such  treatment. 

The  answer  to  these  questions  is  that  It  Is  neither 
true  nor  possible.  You  can  take  a  piece  of  metal 
and,  by  melting  it  down,  entirely  destroy  its  previous 
form;  and  when  you  have  done  this,  you  hav^e  a 
material  that  Is  plastic,  and  can  be  moulded  or  beaten 


FALLACY   OF  THE   MELTING-POT     115 

into  any  shape  you  desire.  The  metal  has  no  his- 
tory, in  the  sense  in  which  that  term  applies  to  living 
things.  To  use  the  terminology  of  M.  Bergson,  it 
has  no  duration.  Time  does  not  bite  into  it.  At 
any  moment  it  is  possible  (at  least  theoretically,  and 
in  large  measure  practically)  to  reverse  all  that  has 
happened  to  it  and  restore  it  to  the  form  in  which 
it  was  taken  from  the  earth. 

With  living  beings,  and  above  all  with  conscious 
beings,  on  the  other  hand,  this  process  is  a  stark 
impossibility.  You  cannot  reverse  the  past  of  hu- 
manity—  whether  of  a  nation  or  of  an  individual 
person.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  humanity-in-gen- 
eral, into  which  the  definite,  heterogeneous,  living 
creature  can  be  melted  down.  I  remarked  in  an 
earlier  chapter  on  the  fact  that  every  man  and 
woman  is  an  epitome  of  the  vast,  collective,  time- 
spanning  life  of  vanished  multitudes.  The  forms 
of  our  ancestors  have  perished,  but  their  life  lives 
on  in  us,  and  their  experience  is  written  in  the  tissues 
and  nerves  of  our  bodies  and  in  our  souls.  Your 
selfhood  at  this  moment,  friend  reader,  is  not  merely 
a  living  synthesis  of  all  your  own  experiences  from 
birth  onwards,  it  is  also  a  living  synthesis  of  the  life 
of  your  ancestors  and  the  history  of  your  nation. 
You  cannot  unmake  yourself;  America  cannot  un- 
make you;  nay,  God  Almighty  could  not  take  you 
back  to  the  condition  of  relative  simplicity  in  which 
you  were  born,  or  even  reverse  a  single  moment  of 
your  past.  The  characters  traced  by  the  pencil  of 
experience  are  indelible.  All  that  lives  carries  with 
it  into  the  future  its  ever-augmenting  past.     Instead 


ii6     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

of  fading  with  the  years,  the  effects  of  our  experi- 
ences, like  inscriptions  cut  into  the  living  bark  of  a 
tree,  grow  ever  deeper  and  more  definite.  It  may 
be  possible  to  annihilate  your  consciousness,  but  it  is 
not  possible  to  reverse  the  set  of  the  current  of  your 
life  or  to  destroy  the  channel  which  It  has  created. 
For  a  human  personality  may  be  defined  as  a  pro- 
longation of  the  past  into  the  present. 

Since,  then,  there  is  no  humanity-in-general,  save 
in  abstract  thought,  and  since  it  is  impossible  to 
treat  a  man  like  a  piece  of  metal,  it  follows  that 
the  term  "  melting-pot  "  and  the  idea  which  it  im- 
plies are  inapplicable  to  America  and  to  the  process 
of  assimilation  which  the  immigrant  undergoes. 

But  the  metaphor  is  misleading  also  in  another 
way.  When  you  melt  down  metal,  your  purpose 
is  to  work  it  up  afterwards  into  a  shape  determined 
tipoft  in  advance.  You  do  not  deal  with  It  unless  the 
mould  into  which  it  is  to  be  poured  is  ready  to  your 
hand  and  is  of  the  precise  shape  which  you  intend 
your  metal  to  take.  To  justify,  therefore,  this  figure 
of  speech,  it  would  be  necessary  that  the  American 
type,  into  which  the  immigrant  is  to  he  transformed, 
should  be  finally  fixed,  definitely  agreed  upon  and 
accepted. 

But  there  is  no  human  mould  In  America  to  which 
the  spiritual  stuff  of  the  immigrant  is  to  be  patterned. 
Not  only  is  there  as  yet  no  fixed  and  final  type,  but 
there  never  can  be.  All  life  Is  miraculous,  in  the 
sense  that  it  perpetually  defies  its  antecedents,  and 
presents  us  with  more  in  the  effect  than  was  contained 
in  the  cause.     The  difference  between  the  organic 


FALLACY  OF  THE   MELTING-POT     117 

and  the  inorganic  world  is  that,  whereas  the  inor- 
ganic is  the  sphere  of  repetition,  of  calculability,  of 
equivalence  between  antecedent  and  consequent,  the 
organic  world  is  the  world  of  variation,  of  individu- 
ality, of  manifestations  which  no  calculus  can  reduce 
to  equivalence  with  their  antecedents,  and  which  no 
conceivable  extension  of  our  knowledge  could  enable 
us  to  predict  in  detail. 

The  very  genius  of  democracy,  moreover,  must 
lead  us  to  desire  the  widest  possible  range  of  vari- 
ability, the  greatest  attainable  differentiation  of  in- 
dividuality, among  our  population.  It  may  be  con- 
venient in  a  military  autocracy  to  have  men  as  much 
alike  as  possible,  to  curb  or  amputate  their  eccen- 
tricities, to  cancel  their  individual  differences  and 
originalities.  Such  a  State,  being  formed  on  the 
analogy  of  a  machine  —  that  is  to  say,  being  de- 
signed to  have  no  will  and  purpose  of  its  own,  but 
to  act  always  in  a  determinate  fashion  at  the  will 
and  purpose  of  its  controllers  —  is  hampered  and 
inconvenienced  by  originality  and  individual  initia- 
tive. The  characteristics  which  lead  men  to  think 
and  to  act  differently  from  their  predecessors  and 
their  fellows  are  a  menace  to  it.  This,  however,  is 
the  antipodes  of  the  democratic  conception  of  so- 
ciety, the  very  raison  d'etre  whereof  is  the  encour- 
agement of  independence  and  originality.  It  fol- 
lows, then,  that  America  should  wish  to  do  unto  the 
immigrant  the  precise  opposite  of  what  this  fallacy- 
breeding  image  of  the  melting-pot  suggests  to  our 
minds. 

Americans  desire,  moreover,  that  the  immigrant 


ii8     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

shall  modify  them  as  well  as  that  he  shall  be  modi- 
fied by  them.  Or,  at  all  events,  whether  this  be  de- 
sired or  not,  the  nature  of  man  makes  it  inevitable 
that  it  will  happen.  The  newcomer  is,  or  should  be, 
welcomed  for  the  reason  that  his  presence  here  leads 
to  contact  and  contrast  between  our  minds  and  his, 
between  our  culture-type  and  that  of  the  race  or 
nation  which  he  represents.  Molten  metal  conforms 
by  rigid  necessity  to  the  shape  of  the  container  into 
which  it  is  poured,  while  the  container  itself  remains 
unaffected.  Whenever  two  men  meet,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  result  of  their  contact  must  be  a  mutual 
modification.  This  is  the  very  condition  of  life  and 
growth.  The  business  of  America  is  to  get  rid  of 
mechanical  uniformity,  and,  by  encouraging  the  ut- 
most possible  differentiation  through  mental  and 
psychic  cross-fertilization,  to  attain  to  a  higher  level 
of  humanity.  Not,  indeed,  that  America  is,  or  ever 
has  been,  perverted  by  the  despotic  superstition  of 
the  Superman;  her  ideal  and  function  is  to  abolish 
the  gulf  dividing  Sub-man  from  Man.  She  may  not 
pray  with  Browning,  "  Make  no  more  giants,  God," 
but  she  does  pray,  "  elevate  the  race  at  once!  "  In- 
stead of  despising  common  humanity,  she  believes 
in  its  uncommon  possibilities.  She  has  an  unswerv- 
ing faith  that  liberty  and  just  relations  will  call  forth 
in  common  men  powers  and  virtues  which,  in  an  un- 
just or  undemocratic  society,  must  remain  for  ever 
latent  and  unsuspected  even  by  their  possessors. 

The  truth  is,  this  image  of  the  melting-pot  is  de- 
rived from  a  doctrine  about  the  ultimate  destiny  of 
human  society  which  in  the  last  few  decades  has  be- 


FALLACY   OF  THE   MELTING-POT     119 

come  exceedingly  widespread,  and  which  awakens 
the  enthusiasm  of  many  well-meaning  people  who 
do  not  take  the  trouble  to  think  out  its  implications. 
I  refer  to  the  doctrine  called  Cosmopolitanism. 
The  cosmopolitan  believes  In  the  Brotherhood  of 
Man.  He  loves  to  take  that  noble  phrase  upon  his 
tongue.  But  he  forgets,  while  doing  so,  that  the 
very  possibility  of  human  evolution  depends  on  the 
fact  that  brothers,  instead  of  being  mere  replicas  of 
each  other,  differ  Incalculably  and  unpredictably. 
He  dreams  that  a  worldwide  human  fraternity  can 
be  achieved  by  obliterating  all  national  and  psychic 
frontiers  and  transforming  the  world  into  a  single 
nation,  a  single  State,  with  one  tradition,  one  loyalty, 
one  flag.  He  Ignores  the  psychological  facts  which 
show  that  such  a  future  for  mankind  is  impossible, 
and  would  be  horribly  undesirable  even  If  it  were 
possible.  He  forgetc  that  the  evolution  of  all  life  is 
away  from  homogeneity  and  towards  heterogeneity, 
and  that,  even  among  the  lower  animals,  the  chance 
of  perpetuity  for  a  species  Increases  as  the  number  of 
Its  varieties  multiplies.  The  greater  the  number  of 
varieties,  the  greater  Is  the  range  of  adaptability, 
and  the  wider,  consequently,  Is  the  environment  In 
which  the  species  will  be  able  to  survive  and  develop. 
In  this  matter,  human  evolution,  spiritual  evolution, 
presents  the  same  law  that  we  discover  in  the  sub- 
human world. 

The  Brotherhood  of  Man  ?  Yes !  But  not  by  the 
obliteration  of  variety  and  distinctness;  rather  by 
seeing  to  it  that  there  shall  be  free  scope  and  favour- 
ing environment  for  as  many  and  as  widely  varying 


120     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

types  as  man's  purposive  evolution  can  create.  And 
this  means  that  there  must  be  separate  and  distinct 
nationalities  as  well  as  separate  and  distinct  individu- 
alities. It  is  a  fantastic  heresy  to  suppose  that  two 
nations  can  melt  wholly  into  one  another,  or  that  a 
single  people  can  pass  away,  without  the  world  be- 
coming poorer.  We  cannot  suffer  the  extinction 
even  of  primitive  tribes  like  the  Tasmanlans  or  the 
Australian  aborigines  without  a  loss  to  the  universe. 
We  cannot  turn  Indians  into  imitation  New  Eng- 
enders, or  Danes  or  Poles  or  Frenchmen  into  imita- 
tion Germans,  —  God  forbid! — without  destroying 
something  infinitely  precious,  because  irreplaceable. 
The  cosmopolitan  ideal  would  mean  Chinese  iso- 
lation universalized,  and  Chinese  history  repeated 
on  the  scale  of  the  whole  world;  for  it  would  ex- 
clude the  possibility  of  intercourse  between  dissimi- 
lar culture-types.  The  nineteenth  century  has  al- 
ready mechanized  and  stereotyped  us  far  too  much. 
But  in  the  future.  If  a  wise  policy  prevails,  we  shall 
make  machinery  our  servant  instead  of  permitting 
It  to  be  our  master,  as  hitherto  It  has  so  largely  been. 
For  we  must  grow  towards  the  perception  that 
the  two  Indispensable  conditions  of  human  advance- 
ment are  freedom  and  variety.  Instead  of  the  Cos- 
mopolitan, we  must  set  up  the  International  ideal. ^ 
There  must  be  many  nations,  and  every  nation  must 
be   made   unconditionally   safe    against   aggression. 

^  Many  Socialists  and  other  cosmopolitans  thought  they  were 
preaching  internationalism  when  what  they  were  really  preaching  was 
anti-nationalism.  The  two  ideals  are  poles  asunder.  Internationalism 
presupposes  nations,  and  national  patriotisms,  and  divergent  types  of 
character  and  culture;  anti-national  Socialism  would  obliterate  all 
these. 


FALLACY   OF  THE   MELTING-POT     121 

The  conception  of  patriotism  must  be  expanded,  un- 
til it  acquires  the  universality  which  is  a  necessary 
characteristic  of  every  sound  ethical  principle.  It 
must  come  to  mean  that  the  very  devotion  of  a  man 
to  his  own  country  shall  constrain  him  to  respect 
the  devotion  of  all  other  men  to  their  countries; 
that  the  idea  of  inviolability,  which  haloes  his  own 
nation,  shall  attach  itself  equally  to  every  nation. 
On  this  line,  and  on  this  alone,  may  we  look  for  a 
genuine  fraternity  of  the  human  race;  and  also  for  a 
development  of  the  spiritual  potentialities  of  human- 
ity to  which  no  limit  can  be  assigned  by  the  most 
piercing  vision.  Mankind  is  one;  but  it  must  be 
One-in-Many,  a  Unity-in- Variety.  Upon  this  condi- 
tion we  have  hope,  progress,  and  the  open  road. 
The  cosmopolitan  plan  would  mean  arrest,  stagna- 
tion, and  a  closed  horizon. 

Of  all  possible  modes,  then,  for  the  assimilation 
of  immigrants  into  America,  that  suggested  by  the 
image  of  the  melting-pot  is  the  least  possible  and 
the  least  desirable. 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  NATIONAL-GROUP  IDEA,  AND  THE  ANTI- 
NATIONALISTS 

MANY  people  may  agree  with  the  arguments 
advanced  in  the  preceding  chapter,  and  yet 
may  proceed  to  draw  from  them  a  conclusion  as 
erroneous  as  the  theory  against  which  I  have  set 
them  forth.  "  If  the  melting-pot  idea  is  unwork- 
able," they  will  say,  "  it  must  follow  that  the  right 
course  is  to  preserve  unchanged  the  identity,  to  keep 
unmodified  the  racial  and  national  memories  and 
the  inherited  cultures,  of  the  various  groups  which 
have  been  added  to  our  population." 

Accordingly,  they  will  think  it  right  that  Greeks 
and  Czechs,  Slavs  and  Italians,  Germans  and  Irish, 
shall  as  groups  have  their  distinct  local  habitations 
and  retain  all  the  peculiarities  which  they  brought 
with  them  to  our  shores.  Separate  nationalistic 
societies,  each  with  its  special  organ,  and  the  use  of 
"  a  leash  of  languages  "  for  the  purposes  of  our 
common  political  life,  will  seem  to  be  the  right  alter- 
native —  nay,  the  only  alternative  —  to  the  policy 
prescribed  by  a  doctrine  which  our  examination  has 
shown  to  be  fallacious. 

I  must,  however,  request  the  favour  of  a  patient 
hearing  in  my  attempt  to  explain  why  I  think  this 
idea  no  less  mistaken  than  the  one  to  which  the  last 


THE    NATIONAL-GROUP   IDEA      123 

chapter  was  devoted.  We  must  distinguish.  There 
is  a  thoroughly  sound  and  legitimate  work  to  be 
done  by  the  nationalistic  societies  and  their  organs, 
but  it  is  not  that  of  merely  preserving  untainted  and 
unchanged  the  language,  the  traditions  and  the  cul- 
ture of  the  newcomers. 

That  the  argument  which  I  am  about  to  submit  is 
neither  a  merely  academic  nor  a  superfluous  one  is 
shown  by  the  extent  to  which  this  backward-looking 
conception  of  the  relation  of  immigrant  groups  to 
America  and  to  each  other  at  present  prevails.  The 
segregation,  clannishness  and  in-breeding  of  our  na- 
tional groups  has  been  notorious.  Sometimes  by 
conscious  intention,  perhaps  more  often  by  accident 
or  economic  pressure,  or  perhaps  through  sheer  fail- 
ure to  think  out  any  theory  of  their  moral  obliga- 
tions and  of  their  American  destiny,  our  foreigners 
have  herded  together,  and  transformed  the  areas 
in  which  they  live  into  mere  detached  fragments  of 
the  lands  from  which  they  came.  They  rendered 
themselves  as  impervious  as  possible  to  the  seeping 
in  of  American  influences.  In  this  they  were  some- 
times abetted  by  that  Papalistic  policy  which,  as  we 
saw  from  Fr.  Conway's  pamphlet,  would  deliberately 
prefer  utter  illiteracy  to  the  kind  of  Americanization 
our  public  schools  seek  to  effect.  Nor  is  the  Papal 
sect  by  any  means  the  only  one  which  resorts  to  this 
policy,  for  the  Greek  Church  and  various  Protestant 
bodies  have  acted  in  similar  fashion.  All  around 
us  we  find  churches  and  schools  and  homes  in  which 
the  Polish,  the  Greek,  the  Italian  or  the  German 
language  is  exclusively  employed;  with  the  natural 


124     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

and  inevitable  —  and  often,  one  must  add,  the  con- 
sciously designed  —  result  that  the  most  sacred 
things  are  dissociated  in  men's  minds  from  the  life 
and  ideals  of  the  nation. 

Nobody  Is  better  aware  than  your  carefully 
trained  Jesuit  priest  of  "  the  effect  of  early  educa- 
tion in  sealing  up  the  mind  against  all  access  of  new 
ideas  that  seem  to  conflict  with  early  impressions," 
—  to  use  the  language  of  the  Rev.  M.  P.  Hill,  S.J., 
in  his  able  treatise  entitled  "  The  Catholic's  Ready 
Answer."  Implant  your  foreign  language  first,  and 
drench  your  pupil's  entire  sub-conscious  life,  with  all 
its  emotions  and  sentiments,  in  the  feeling  that  that 
language  is  the  only  appropriate  means  of  lifting  the 
soul  into  the  presence  of  the  divine;  and  the  result 
must  necessarily  be  that  he  will  always  feel  towards 
America  as  towards  something  secondary  and  secu- 
lar, something  unworthy  to  be  the  object  of  the  high- 
est loyalty  of  the  heart.  The  spontaneous  affection 
of  a  person  so  brought  up  will  cluster  for  ever  around 
the  source  from  which  his  language  and  his  religious 
faith  have  come  to  him.  No  matter  what  may  be 
the  new  ideas,  or  even  the  rational  judgments,  of 
later  life,  his  mind,  as  Fr.  Hill  puts  it,  will  be  sealed 
against  them.  Every  attempt  which  such  a  policy 
dictates  to  keep  him  a  foreigner,  in  so  far  as  it  suc- 
ceeds, prevents  him  from  becoming  a  true  American. 

If,  in  addition  to  the  early  influences  of  church, 
school  and  home,  a  man's  adolescent  and  mature 
life  find  all  their  satisfactions  in  association  with 
persons  and  influences  of  the  same  provenance  as 
his  first  language,  the  invisible  barrier  that  secludes 


THE   NATIONAL-GROUP   IDEA      125 

him  from  vital  contact  and  interdependence  with  his 
nation  will  be  all  the  more  impenetrable.  If  Amer- 
ica means  to  him  psychologically  an  outer,  unhome- 
like  world,  in  which  he  works  because  he  must,  but 
all  his  gains  from  which  are  merely  a  convenience  to 
augment  the  pleasures  and  satisfactions  which  he 
seeks  within  the  ring-fence  of  his  parental  nation,  his 
essential  foreignness  must  remain  almost  complete. 

I  am  here  speaking,  be  it  remembered,  not  hypo- 
thetically,  but  on  the  basis  of  experience.  We  have 
all  known  persons  born  and  educated  in  this  country, 
and  never  subjected  by  travel  to  immediate  Euro- 
pean influence,  who  nevertheless  have  remained  as 
thoroughly  foreign  in  spirit  and  in  their  heart's  alle- 
giance as  the  last  arrival  from  Ellis  Island.  We 
have  all  met  persons  who,  despite  their  American 
birth,  speak  English  haltingly  and  with  difficulty,  and 
can  express  themselves  spontaneously  only  in  some 
other  tongue.  We  have  all  seen  evidence  of  the 
contempt  which  such  persons  sometimes  entertain 
for  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  this  country, 
as  contrasted  with  their  ecstatic  adoration  for  the 
institutions  of  other  lands,  which  they  know  only  by 
tradition.  Many  of  us  have  heard  them  say  that  if 
there  should  come  a  clash  between  this  country  and 
the  lands  to  which  they  looked  back,  as  Adam  and 
Eve  may  be  supposed  to  have  looked  back  to  para- 
dise, America  would  mean  nothing  to  them.^ 

Such  being  the  effects  of  segregation,  what  be- 
liever in  the  integrity  and  spiritual  worth  of  the 

1  I  heard  this  from  more  than  one  German-American  before  we  went 
into  the  war. 


126     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

Republic  can  find  it  tolerable?  What  patriot  can 
bear  to  think  that  his  neighbour,  born  under  the  same 
flag,  living  under  the  same  institutions,  voting  at  the 
same  elections,  yet  regards  this  country  as  something 
merely  to  be  endured  and  preyed  upon,  and  as  alto- 
gether wretched  and  contemptible  in  comparison 
with  some  European  State?  To  any  sincere  lover 
of  this  country,  the  thought  of  its  being  thus  re- 
garded and  thus  exploited  is  more  unbearable  than 
the  thought  of  being  himself  treated  as  a  mere  tool 
for  the  advantage  of  others  who  look  down  upon 
him  with  scorn. 

The  remedy,  however,  for  this  state  of  things 
need  not  be  any  such  violent  action  as  has  lately 
been  recommended  by  Colonel  Roosevelt.  There  is 
no  occasion  to  suppress  all  the  foreign-language 
newspapers;  and  even  if  this  were  done,  it  would 
not  destroy,  but  would  rather  intensify,  the  spirit 
to  which  Mr.  Roosevelt  objects.  But  there  is  occa- 
sion to  see  that  those  newspapers  become  organs  of 
the  American  spirit,  centres  for  the  propagation  of 
American  ideals,  and  instruments  for  the  education 
of  their  readers  in  the  high  privileges  and  responsi- 
bilities of  American  citizenship. 

Having  already  pleaded  that  Americans  should 
learn  from  the  immigrant  as  well  as  teach  him,  I 
can  now  without  inconsistency  express  my  desire  to 
see  every  American  a  regular  reader  of  one  or  more 
foreign-language  newspapers,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
my  wish  that  every  immigrant  or  child  of  an  immi- 
grant should  be  a  reader  of  one  or  more  newspapers 
in  the  English  tongue,  as  well  as  of  the  journals 


THE    NATIONAL-GROUP   IDEA      127 

printed  in  the  language  of  his  forebears.  Nor,  in 
bare  justice,  can  one  refrain  from  adding,  while  on 
this  subject,  that  our  foreign  Press  does  frequently 
voice  the  American  spirit  and  inculcate  its  principles 
in  a  way  that  would  put  many  of  our  English-using 
newspapers  to  the  blush.  But  in  order  that  it  may 
fully  justify  its  delicate  and  seemingly  anomalous 
position,  the  foreign  Press  must  consciously  and  un- 
equivocally accept  the  Americanization  of  Its  read- 
ers as  its  constant  major  goal.  Its  political  influence 
ought  always  to  be  exerted  to  induce  its  readers  to 
think  and  vote  as  Americans  and  with  a  single  eye 
to  the  well-being  of  America. 

The  spectacle  of  appeals  at  our  elections,  made 
on  behalf  of  candidates  of  native  citizenship,  to 
foreigners  as  foreigners,  urging  them  to  support 
the  recommended  candidate  because  he  is  a  friend  to 
the  nation  whence  they  came,  is,  I  suppose,  so  famil- 
iar to  born  Americans  that  they  have  come  either  to 
ignore  it  or  to  accept  it  as  a  part  of  the  natural  order 
of  things.  Yet,  as  a  newcomer,  I  cannot  refrain 
from  expressing  the  horror  and  the  sense  of  outrage 
which  the  sight  and  sound  of  these  appeals  has  awak- 
ened in  me. 

Before  the  last  mayoral  election  in  Chicago,  I 
was  shown  a  post-card,  printed  in  the  German  lan- 
guage, urging  the  Germans  of  the  city  (as  though 
any  citizen  and  voter  in  Chicago  could  be  a  Ger- 
man !)  to  vote  for  a  candidate  with  a  German  name, 
on  the  unspeakable  ground  that  his  election  would 
have  great  weight  with  the  authorities  at  Washing- 
ton, and  might  lead  to  a  modification  of  the  policy 


128     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

of  the  Republic  in  favour  of  the  Central  Powers. 
There  was  perhaps  a  touch  of  ironic  humour  in  the 
fact  that  the  person  who  showed  me  this  card  was 
the  son  of  a  German  immigrant,  who,  having  neg- 
lected the  culture  of  his  ancestors,  was  unable  to  read 
it,  and  therefore  appealed  to  an  Englishman  to  tell 
him  its  purport!  After  translating  the  message,  I 
read  my  acquaintance  a  homily  on  the  enormity  of 
the  offence  which  this  post-card  represented,  and 
upon  what  I  understood  to  be  the  honourable  obli- 
gations of  citizenship.  I  rejoice  to  say  that  the 
candidate  on  whose  behalf  this  treasonable  appeal 
was  made  did  not  win  the  election;  —  though,  to 
be  sure,  when  one  remembers  who  did  win  it,  there 
seems  little  enough  reason  for  satisfaction.  On  an- 
other occasion,  when  a  vacancy  in  the  United  States 
Senate  was  to  be  filled,  I  saw  a  printed  placard 
pasted  up  on  the  walls,  which  read:  *' Deutscher! 

Stimmen  fiir .     Er  ist  iinser  Freund!  "     Again 

I  rejoice  to  testify  that  this  infamous  mandate  failed 
of  its  object. 

Of  all  the  forms  of  political  corruption  by  which 
our  democracy  is  vitiated,  this  form,  in  which  there 
is  no  question  of  money-bribery  or  "  graft,"  but  in 
which  the  debauchery  is  spiritual,  is  immeasurably 
the  worst.  No  person  who  permits  such  an  appeal 
to  issue  in  his  name  ought  ever  again  to  be  allowed 
to  offer  himself  as  a  candidate  for  any  public  office. 
Indeed,  for  one  offence,  he  ought  to  be  deprived  of 
civil  rights  and  committed  to  the  penitentiary.  We 
may  say  on  paper  that  in  times  of  peace  the  crime 
of  treason  cannot  be  committed  against  the  United 


THE   NATIONAI^GROUP   IDEA      129 

States/  just  as  we  may  say  on  paper,  if  we  choose, 
that  in  time  of  peace  water  shall  not  be  permitted 
to  flow  downhill ;  but  in  truth  the  one  statement  is  as 
false  and  idle  as  the  other.  Treason  can  be,  and  is, 
committed  against  the  Republic  whenever  a  local 
or  national  question  of  American  politics  is  manip- 
ulated for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  in  citizens  a 
loyalty  which  they  have  forsworn  with  their  lips, 
and  ought  to  have  renounced  with  their  hearts. 
Treason  can  be,  and  is,  committed  whenever  any 
candidate  for  an  American  office  designs,  or  even 
pretends  to  design,  to  use  the  office,  if  he  gains  it,  in 
the  interests  of  a  foreign  Power. 

Scarcely  less  reprehensible  than  such  practices  is 
the  habit,  notoriously  prevalent  among  our  politi- 
cians, of  appealing  not  to  the  American  loyalty  of 
their  constituents,  but  to  their  tribal  pride  as  mem- 
bers of  some  European  race.  But  for  the  testimony 
of  my  own  ears,  I  could  not  have  believed  that  a 
responsible  American  citizen  of  national  fame  would 
urge  an  audience  mainly  composed  of  Southern  Ital- 
ians to  vote  against  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
on  the  ground  that  many  years  earlier,  in  a  published 
work,  that  candidate  had  made  some  uncomplimen- 
tary comparisons  between  Southern  Italians  and 
other  immigrant  groups.  Yet  such  an  appeal  I  actu- 
ally heard  made  by  an  eminent  Progressive,  when 
advocating  the  candidacy  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  against 
that  of  Mr.  Wilson  in  the  year  19 12. 

It  needs  but  a  slight  knowledge  of  history  and 

1  "Treason  against  the  United  States  shall  consist  only  in  levying 
war  against  them,  or  in  adhering  to  their  enemies,  giving  them  aid  and 
comfort."  —  Constitution,  Art.  Ill,  §  3. 


I30     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

of  the  world  to  make  one  realize  that  no  other  na- 
tion would  dream  of  tolerating  such  abuse  of  its 
hospitality,  such  insidious  and  traitorous  misuse  of 
its  freedom.  If  the  ignorant  immigrant,  new  to 
this  land,  unfamiliar  with  its  history  and  ideals, 
makes  the  interests  of  Italy  or  Germany  the  main 
consideration  determining  his  vote,  our  feeling  of 
resentment  may  be  cooled  by  consideration  for  his 
position.  But  when  responsible  Americans,  with  no 
such  excuse,  thus  flagrantly  prostitute  the  interests 
of  the  Republic  in  the  effort  to  advance  their  own 
political  fortunes,  one  can  find  no  language  of  a 
printable  description  strong  enough  to  characterize 
their  conduct.  We  have  but  to  remind  them  how 
they  would  fare  if  in  similar  circumstances  they 
pursued  the  same  course  in  England  or  France  or 
Germany. 

If  they  would  refrain  from  such  conduct  in  those 
countries,  what  would  be  their  motive?  Fear  of  the 
police?  Terror  of  the  odium  and  contempt,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  prison  sentence,  which  it  would  prob- 
ably bring  down  upon  them?  If  so,  what  are  we 
to  think  of  persons  whom  nothing  but  terror  can  in- 
duce to  behave  with  common  decency?  Is  America, 
which  trusts  to  their  honour  and  attaches  no  penalty 
to  such  offences,  to  be  exploited  and  insulted  in  re- 
quital of  her  magnanimity? 

The  national  function  which  I  would  assign  to 
the  foreign-language  newspaper  is  also  the  only  one 
which  can  justify  the  existence  of  societies  composed 
of  Americans  of  alien  origin.  By  every  principle 
of  honour,  and  also  indeed  by  every  principle  of 


THE    NATIONAL-GROUP   IDEA      131 

enlightened  self-interest,  they  are  bound  to  make 
their  efforts  subservient  to  the  Americanization  of 
their  members  and  the  inculcation  of  the  spirit  and 
principles  of  the  Republic.  In  this  way,  but  only  in 
this  way,  they  can  achieve  a  legitimate  and  a  useful 
end.  Let  them  keep  alive  Italian  and  German  music 
and  literature,  Balkan  handicrafts,  and  the  folk-lore 
and  folk-dances  of  the  Old  World;  —  not  for  the 
sake  of  the  Old  World,  but  as  elements  contributory 
to  American  culture.  Let  them  spend  as  much  time 
in  bringing  the  spirit  and  meaning  of  American  in- 
stitutions home  to  their  members  as  in  bringing  home 
to  Americans  the  spirit  and  meaning  of  their  Euro- 
pean traditions. 

It  may  seem  inappropriate  to  discuss  the  attitude 
of  the  anti-national  political  theorist  in  the  same 
chapter  in  which  we  consider  the  error  of  those  who 
devote  themselves  to  the  preservation  of  national 
loyalties  incompatible  with  American  patriotism. 
Inasmuch,  however,  as,  qua  America,  the  practical 
effect  of  both  these  wrong  policies  is  the  same,  I 
cannot  think  it  out  of  place  to  devote  a  word  here 
to  the  duty  of  all  political  parties  to  be  animated  by 
loyalty  to  the  Republic,  to  inculcate  this  loyalty  in 
their  members,  and  to  make  the  spiritual  and  ma- 
terial development  of  the  nation  the  be-all  and  end- 
all  of  their  efforts.  I  have  already  cited  instances  of 
the  fashion  in  which  members  of  the  two  dominant 
national  parties  are  sometimes  false  to  this  duty. 
But  there  is  another  influential  party,  the  Socialist, 
many  of  whose  members  regard  all  nations  alike  as 


132     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

their  enemies,  and  teach  that  men's  only  loyalty 
should  be  given  to  their  own  class  throughout  the 
world. 

This  is,  of  course,  the  familiar  doctrine  of  Karl 
Marx,  as  understood  and  reiterated  by  the  most 
prominent  of  his  followers  in  many  countries.  For 
reasons  which  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  adduce,  I 
maintain  that  this  Marxian  heresy  has  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  Socialism  in  its  true  sense.  The  very 
genius  of  that  movement  is  the  plea  for  nationaliza- 
tion. Its  watchwords  are,  and  have  always  been, 
the  nationalization  of  land,  capital,  and  all  the  in- 
strumentalities of  production,  distribution  and  ex- 
change. To  preach  the  abrogation  or  supersession 
of  nationality  in  the  same  breath  with  this  doctrine 
is  a  childish  inconsistency.  What  could  be  the  pro- 
gramme which  should  aim  simultaneously  at  nation- 
alizing all  resources  and  destroying  the  nation? 
But,  unhappily,  the  proletariat  to  which  the  evangel 
of  Socialism  is  commonly  preached  is  for  the  most 
part  at  a  childish  stage  of  intellectual  development, 
and  consequently  is  unable  to  detect  the  transparent 
fallacies  and  sophistries  of  its  exhorters. 

On  the  very  day  on  which  I  first  wrote  this  page, 
I  read  in  the  newspaper  of  a  public  demonstration 
addressed  by  leaders  of  Socialism  in  Chicago,  who 
informed  their  hearers  that  America's  entrance  into 
the  European  War  was  motived  not  at  all  by  the  hu- 
manitarian and  democratic  ideals  expounded  by  the 
President,  but  by  the  vicious  desire  of  capitalists  to 
profit  financially  through  it.  This,  be  it  remembered, 
in  face  of  the  notorious   fact  that  our  capitalists 


THE   NATIONAI^GROUP   IDEA      133 

gained  Immensely  more  by  our  neutrality  than  they 
could  possibly  gain  by  our  belligerency;  in  face,  also, 
of  the  equally  glaring  facts  that  members  and  sons 
of  the  so-called  capitalist  class  volunteered  to  risk 
their  lives  in  the  nation's  service  in  far  greater  pro- 
portion than  members  of  the  working  class  volun- 
teered, and  that  the  selective  conscription  laws  apply 
to  all  classes  alike.  What  can  be  the  curious  twist 
in  the  minds  of  educated  men  which  leads  them  to 
support  their  cause  by  such  disgraceful  falsehoods? 
I  speak,  perhaps,  with  the  more  heat  in  this  mat- 
ter, because  I  feel  in  some  measure  personally  com- 
promised by  the  outrageous  conduct  of  these  per- 
verters  of  the  populace.  For  a  number  of  years  I 
have  been  a  member  of  the  British  Fabian  Society. 
This  is  a  group  of  thinkers  who  for  thirty  years 
have  been  demonstrating  that  the  ideal  of  Socialism 
is  thoroughly  consistent  with  nationality  and  with 
the  most  ardent  patriotism;  that  it  does  not  need  the 
support  either  of  the  anti-national  heresy  of  Marx 
or  of  his  dogmatic  and  unphilosophic  materialism 
and  economic  determinism.  The  Fabian  students 
have  shown,  further,  that  the  measures  by  which  the 
transition  from  competitive  individualism  to  the  co- 
operative commonwealth  may  be  brought  about  need 
not  involve  any  wide  social  upheaval,  or  any  revenge 
upon  the  beneficiaries  of  the  existing  order.  No 
man  who  has  come  under  the  influence  of  these  sane 
teachings,^  no  man  who  has  sat  at  the  feet  of  Mr. 

1  Which  have  latterly  been  made  widely  known  among  us,  thanks 
to  the  enterprise  of  The  New  Republic  in  reprinting  the  Programme  of 
War  Aims  and  the  Programme  of  Reconstruction  of  the  British  Labour 
Party. 


134     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

Sidney  Webb  and  his  distinguished  colleagues,  can 
witness  patiently  the  attempts  of  anarchists  and  anti- 
patriots  to  pervert  the  ideal  they  profess  into  some- 
thing far  more  hideous  than  the  worst  of  the  injus- 
tices against  which  they  are  ostensibly  in  revolt. 

It  is  neither  ethically  nor  psychologically,  neither 
historically  nor  economically  sound,  to  believe  that 
the  nation  can  ever  be  superseded;  nor  is  it  sound 
to  hold  that  the  immigrant  groups  in  America  should 
remain  permanently  segregated  from  each  other  and 
from  the  nation  at  large.  While  retaining  and  de- 
veloping the  culture  which  they  bring,  they  must  at 
the  same  time  transform  it  into  American  culture, 
and  themselves  into  depositaries  and  channels  of 
American  ideals  and  principles.  They  must  assim- 
ilate the  older  culture  of  the  American  people  and 
that  of  their  fellow-immigrants  of  other  race,  to  the 
end  that,  through  the  mutual  penetration  of  these 
many  embodiments  of  the  human  spirit,  something 
greater  and  finer  than  any  of  them  may  be  produced. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE    RIGHT   METHOD:    CULTURAL 
CROSS-FERTILIZATION 

IF  the  reader's  patience  has  not  been  exhausted 
by  the  analysis  of  "  how  not  to  do  it  "  in  the  two 
preceding  chapters,  I  may  now  submit  for  his  con- 
sideration a  brief  outline  of  what  I  take  to  be  the 
true  method  of  realizing  the  cultural  promise  of 
the  American  nation. 

The  heterogeneity  of  our  population,  which  so 
many  people  deplore,  is  in  my  judgment  not  at  all  a 
thing  to  be  regretted,  but  is  rather  the  very  fact 
which  enables  us  to  entertain  a  rational  hope  that 
America  will  take  rank  among  the  foremost,  if  not 
as  the  foremost,  of  the  nations  of  the  world,  in 
elaborating  the  mental,  aesthetic  and  material  civili- 
zation of  the  next  few  centuries.  My  belief  in  this 
possibility  is  rooted  in  a  study  of  history,  not  indeed 
so  broad  or  deep  as  I  could  wish,  but  sufficiently  so 
to  convince  me  that  we  have  in  the  Republic  to-day 
precisely  such  a  set  of  conditions  as  in  the  past  has 
always  preceded  and  caused  every  notable  efflores- 
cence of  national  or  racial  genius,  every  marked 
advance  in  the  cultural  development  of  mankind. 

For  such  developments  have  always  resulted  from 
the  meeting  and  blending  of  contrasted  culture- 
types.     This  is  a  rule  to  which,  I  think,  there  has 


136     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

been  no  outstanding  exception.  Formerly,  indeed, 
the  high  achievement  of  the  Hellenic  peoples  used 
to  be  regarded  as  a  spontaneous  or,  so  to  say, 
parthenogenetic  quickening  of  the  higher  genius  of 
a  nation.  But  modern  research  has  demonstrated 
that,  here  as  elsewhere,  the  general  law  is  exempli- 
fied. We  now  know  that  not  until  the  crude  art  and 
philosophy  of  early  Greece  had  been  brought  into 
intimate  contact  with  the  older  cultures  of  Egypt 
and  the  East  did  the  rapid  ascent  begin.  Through 
its  colonies  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  through 
intercourse  with  the  ancient  civilization  of  the  Nile 
Valley,  and  through  what  it  derived  from  the  won- 
derful culture  of  the  so-called  Minoan  period  in 
Crete,  the  genius  of  the  Greek  peoples  was  stimu- 
lated to  the  point  at  which  the  glories  of  Periclean 
Athens  —  the  sculpture  of  Pheidias,  the  philosophy 
of  Socrates  and  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  the  drama 
of  Aeschylus,  Sophocles  and  Euripides  —  could 
arise.  Had  Greece  been  spiritually  isolated,  or  had 
its  tribal  egotism  and  contempt  for  foreigners  for- 
bidden it  to  profit  by  the  opportunities  of  associa- 
tion with  other  nations,  it  would  in  all  probability 
have  remained  until  the  end  at  a  dwarfed  and  pov- 
erty-stricken level  of  civilization. 

The  manifestation  of  the  same  principle  in  the 
case  of  Rome  is  so  clear  that  it  needs  no  emphasis. 
It  is  generally  recognized  that  Roman  literature  is 
for  the  most  part  a  pallid  imitation  of  that  of  Greece, 
—  an  imitation  which  sometimes  sinks  to  the  level 
of  flat  plagiarism.  Every  step  in  the  development 
from  the  primitive   times   of  the   Republic   to  the 


CULTURAL  CROSS-FERTILIZATION    137 

magnificence  of  the  Augustan  era  has  been  shown 
to  have  resulted  from  the  appropriation  by  the 
Romans  of  some  of  the  ideas  of  the  peoples  whom 
they  conquered.  Just  as  their  army  became  a  com- 
posite, formed  from  all  the  peoples  of  the  known 
world,  so  their  civilization  was  a  blend  of  the  cul- 
tural achievements  of  every  nation.  Even  the  reli- 
gion which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  one  great 
heritage  transmitted  by  Rome  to  its  barbarian  con- 
querors, was  a  fusion  of  ideas,  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices blended  together  out  of  many  varieties  of 
Paganism,  and  organized  about  a  Judaeo-Christian 
nucleus.  No  single  or  "  pure  "  cultus  could  have 
won  the  allegiance  of  so  many  nations  as  accepted 
the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  A  glance  at  the  Atha- 
nasian  Creed,  or  even  at  the  much  earlier  Prologue 
to  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  reveals  the  large  extent 
to  which  the  theology  of  the  Church  was  indebted 
to  the  philosophy  of  Greece.  Its  ritual,  its  hagiol- 
ogy,  and  its  festivals  testify  to  a  similar  indebted- 
ness to  many  of  the  cults  which  it  superseded. 

Again,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  English 
nation  is  the  product  of  a  blending  of  tribes  and 
races  which  continued  for  a  thousand  years.  An 
English  immigrant  to  this  country  cannot,  therefore, 
be  moved  to  despair  by  the  multiplicity  of  tongues 
or  the  sharp  and  even  incongruous  contrasts  of  race 
and  culture-level  which  he  discovers  here,  unless  he 
feels  that  his  own  people  have  proved  themselves  a 
failure  in  the  world.  For  what  is  the  story  of 
Britain,  from  the  year  55  B.  C,  and  earlier,  to  1066 
A.  D.  and  later,  but  just  such  a  welter  of  immigration 


138     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

and  assimilation  as  that  to  which  the  term  "  melting- 
pot  "  has  been  applied  in  America?  To  be  sure, 
the  amalgamating  elements  were  fewer,  the  experi- 
ment was  on  a  more  limited  scale,  and  the  time 
which  it  occupied  was  very  much  longer  than  the 
whole  life  of  America  has  thus  far  been.  Never- 
theless, the  outcome  of  the  process,  as  shown  by  a 
comparison  between  the  contributing  elements  and 
the  synthesis  into  which  they  at  last  blended,  justi- 
fies the  conviction  that  America's  repetition  of  the 
experiment  will  indubitably  lead  to  something  finer 
than  any  single  one  of  the  factors  which  co-operate 
to  produce  it. 

The  ethnological  antecedents  of  the  race  or  races 
which  Julius  Caesar  found  in  Britain  are  very  un- 
certain, and  for  our  present  purpose  of  no  great 
importance.  It  suffices  to  remind  the  reader  that 
the  "  Ancient  Britons  "  were  neither  destroyed  nor 
wholly  driven  into  Wales  and  Cornwall  and  Brit- 
tany. Large  numbers  of  them  were  enslaved  or 
otherwise  assimilated  with  their  conquerors.  After 
the  withdrawal  of  the  Roman  armies  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifth  century,  the  country  that  is  now 
England  was  for  nearly  five  hundred  years  the  hunt- 
ing-ground and  battle-field  of  predatory  and  war- 
like tribes  from  all  the  northern  lands  of  Europe. 
Many  Germanic  stocks  established  themselves  in 
petty  kingdoms  on  the  eastern  coast,  and  afterwards 
spread  inland.  These  were  followed  and  fought 
by  Danes  and  other  Scandinavians.  The  relations 
between  the  successive  floods  of  newcomers  and 
those  already  in  possession  were,  of  course,  alter- 


CULTURAL  CROSS-FERTILIZATION    139 

nately  martial  and  marital.  Christianity,  widely 
prevalent  during  the  period  of  the  Roman  occupa- 
tion, was  temporarily  submerged  by  the  Paganism 
of  the  Angles,  Jutes  and  Saxons,  to  be  subsequently 
re-established  by  a  missionary  propaganda  directed 
from  Rome. 

At  length.  In  the  eleventh  century,  there  came  the 
Norman  Conquest  —  a  conquest,  that  is,  by  North- 
men who  had  been  racially  diluted  and  culturally 
modified  by  a  century  and  a  half  of  Gallic  environ- 
ment. The  kingdom  of  William  the  Conqueror  was 
thus  a  violent  fusion  of  two  broadly  differentiated 
peoples,  each  a  composite  derived  from  many  stocks. 
But  within  three  centuries  the  inevitable  process  of 
physical  and  psychical  cross-fertilization  between 
these  two  types  had  resulted  in  their  disappearance 
and  replacement  by  a  new  people,  different  from 
both.  Just  as  the  English  language,  by  the  time  of 
Chaucer,  is  neither  Anglo-Saxon  nor  Norman- 
French,  but  a  new  creation,  immeasurably  richer 
and  more  flexible  than  either  of  the  elements  from 
which  it  had  sprung,  so  the  English  people  Is  no 
longer  Angle  or  Saxon  or  Jute  or  Scandinavian  or 
Norman,  but  a  new  entity,  in  which  the  physical 
stigmata  of  the  various  contributory  races  can  per- 
haps sometimes  be  traced,  but  which  would  never 
have  come  into  being  had  those  races  remained 
segregated  and  "  pure." 

The  term  "  Anglo-Saxon,"  which  many  people 
proudly  use  to  describe  themselves,  or  the  modern 
English  nation,  or  those  elements  In  the  American 
Republic  which  are  of  British  origin,  is  recognized 


140     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

by  anthropologists  to  be  scientifically  worthless.  No 
Englishman  can  venture  to  say,  without  making  him- 
self ridiculous,  that  he  is  of  undiluted  Anglo-Saxon 
or  Danish  or  Celtic  or  Norman  descent.  Every  one 
of  us  is  in  this  sense  a  hybrid,  a  product  of  miscegena- 
tion. If  we  are  to  use  the  term  "Anglo-Saxon"  at  all, 
we  ought  to  restrict  it  to  the  psychic  characteristics 
which  have  been  dominant  in  this  much-mixed  people 
since  its  emergence  as  a  distinct  unity,  or  to  the 
political  ideals  and  social  institutions  which  it  has 
evolved  for  itself  and  planted  throughout  the  world. 
As  a  sociological  term,  in  this  sense,  the  word  may 
be  justified;  but  for  purposes  of  ethnology  it  is 
worse  than  useless. 

The  instances  already  cited,  and  many  others 
with  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  weary  the  reader, 
establish  the  thesis  that  the  enrichment  of  a  civiliza- 
tion is  always  by  way  of  the  crossing  of  compara- 
tively unlike  types.  The  process  may  or  may  not 
involve  the  physical  inter-breeding  of  different  races, 
but  it  must  involve  the  mingling  of  variegated  ideas 
and  ideals,  aesthetic  standards,  religious  beliefs,  and 
philosophical  and  scientific  lore.  The  physical  blend- 
ing of  races,  provided  they  are  not  too  markedly 
divergent,  has  usually  brought  about  an  improve- 
ment of  the  stock.  The  contact  of  culture-standards 
always  causes  a  widening  of  the  mental  horizon  of 
the  peoples  concerned,  and  a  stimulation  of  their 
creative  power. 

Reverting  for  a  moment  to  the  religion  of  Europe, 
we  must  remind  ourselves  that  this  religion  was 
originally  the  cultural  tradition  of  the  Jewish  nation. 


CULTURAL  CROSS-FERTILIZATION    141 

To  be  sure,  It  was  already  composite  before  it  had 
begun  to  spread  among  the  Western  peoples;  but, 
relatively  to  them.  It  may  be  regarded  as  a  single 
and  simple  factor.  The  adoption,  therefore,  of 
Christlanlt)^  by  the  Western  world  was,  from  the 
sociological  standpoint,  an  Instance  of  cultural  cross- 
fertilization.  It  was  the  acceptance  of  the  Ideas  and 
Ideals  of  a  foreign  people;  the  borrowing  of  that 
people's  literature,  and  its  elevation  to  the  rank  of 
divine  revelation.  All  the  peoples  of  Europe,  how- 
ever little  they  may  have  been  physically  modified 
by  Infusions  of  alien  race,  have  thus  been  spiritually 
impregnated  by  an  influence  from  without;  and  this 
influence,  as  we  have  seen,  was  for  many  centuries 
the  dominant  factor  In  their  lives,  the  condition,  in- 
deed, of  their  emergence  into  distinct  and  self- 
conscious    nationhood. 

More  restricted  geographically,  but  not  less 
markedly  effective,  was  the  spiritual  blending  which 
occurred  when  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  literature  of 
ancient  Greece  was  re-discovered.  The  term  "  New 
Birth,"  —  Renaissance,  —  which  has  so  generally 
been  applied  to  this  event.  Is  something  more  than  a 
mere  metaphor,  the  event  being  a  real  case  of  bio- 
genesis on  the  spiritual  plane.  The  words  that 
ancient  Greece  spoke  unto  mediaeval  Europe,  they 
were  spirit  and  they  were  life.  This  Is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  they  engendered  life  after  their  own 
kind.  They  gave  a  wholly  new  direction  to  the  men- 
tal activities  of  the  Western  peoples.  They  made 
and  marked  the  difference  between  the  mediaeval 
and  the  modern  world. 


142     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

We  may  say,  then,  that  if  there  are  any  "  pure  " 
races,  they  are  the  least  civilized  and  the  least  pro- 
gressive races  in  the  world.  If  there  are  civilizations 
which  have  received  no  infiltration  from  contrasted 
cultures,  they  are  so  obscure  and  undeveloped  that 
they  have  contributed  nothing  to  the  general  prog- 
ress of  mankind.  No  doubt  the  pre-Columbian  races 
of  Mexico  and  Peru  were  relatively  "  pure,"  but 
that,  with  their  isolation,  was  the  very  reason  for 
their  arrested  development;  that  was  why,  when 
discovered,  they  were  so  inferior  to  the  civilization 
of  the  discoverers.  Purity,  in  the  queer  technical 
sense  in  which  the  term  is  applied  to  nations  and 
their  cultures,  is  a  synonym  for  poverty.  Pure  lan- 
guages are  always  poorer  than  those  which  have 
assimilated  alien  elements.  The  Germans  foolishly 
pride  themselves  on  the  comparative  freedom  of 
their  tongue  from  foreign  adulteration,  which  they 
do  their  utmost  to  resist.  They  profess  contempt 
for  French,  and  particularly  for  English,  on  the 
ground  that  these  are  hybrids.  But  it  is  precisely 
their  hybridity  which  has  given  them  their  wealth, 
their  flexibility,  their  power  to  express  the  entire 
gamut  of  emotions,  the  subtlest  shades  of  meaning, 
and  the  most  abstract  metaphysical  conceptions. 
The  prevalence  of  French  as  the  language  of  diplo- 
macy, and  the  spread  of  English  over  the  world,^ 


^  A  curious  episode  recently  occurred,  according  to  a  Church  news- 
paper, at  a  conference  of  native  Christians  in  China.  The  delegates 
were  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  the  difference  of  Chinese  dialects 
is  such  that  no  one  of  them  was  intelligible  to  all  present.  So,  in  order 
that  all  the  Chinamen  might  understand  each  other,  the  proceedings 
were  conducted  in  English. 


CULTURAL  CROSS-FERTILIZATION    143 

are  in  large  measure  due  to  their  adaptability  to 
every  need  of  the  mind. 

The  fate  of  the  Aztec  civilization,  of  the  ab- 
origines of  Australia  and  Melanesia,  and  even  of 
the  highly  developed  culture  of  China,  reads  this 
lesson  to  the  world:  that  it  is  not  good  for  a  civiliza- 
tion to  be  alone. 

The  conclusion  seems  irresistibly  to  follow  from 
a  survey  of  history  that  the  conditions  which  prevail 
in  America  to-day,  if  understood  aright  and  wisely 
handled,  contain  the  promise  and  the  potency  of  a 
new  epiphany  of  the  human  spirit,  which  shall  be 
as  much  higher  and  grander  than  that  of  contem- 
porary Europe  as  contemporary  Europe  is  higher 
and  grander  than  the  Europe  of  two  thousand  years 
ago.  All  the  more  does  this  seem  possible  when 
we  remember  that  the  conscious  providence  of  hu- 
manity is  now  far  more  developed,  and  equipped 
with  far  more  potent  instruments  for  the  fulfilment 
of  its  will,  than  at  any  previous  period  in  the  history 
of  the  world. 

The  mastery  over  the  earth's  resources  which  ap- 
plied science  has  given  us,  although,  as  we  see  to- 
day, it  can  all  too  easily  be  degraded  into  a  means 
of  collective  suicide,  nevertheless  needs  only  good 
will  and  humane  purpose  to  transform  the  world 
into  a  paradise.  It  even  contains  the  promise  that 
we  may  turn  what  has  hitherto  been  a  fortuitous  and 
accidental  development  into  a  consciously  controlled 
process.  For  the  minds  of  men,  and  the  general 
mind  of  society,  have  their  uniformities  no  less  than 
the  outer  world.     Although  we  are  now  only  be- 


144     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

ginning  to  understand  these,  it  seems  not  irrational, 
following  the  analogy  of  our  experience  of  the  outer 
world,  to  indulge  the  hope  that  a  fuller  knowledge 
of  our  own  nature's  laws  will  enable  us  to  plan  our 
future  mental  evolution.  It  may  give  us  the  possi- 
bility of  psychic  and  spiritual,  as  well  as  of  bodily 
eugenics. 

But  the  wise  utilization  of  our  present  oppor- 
tunity in  America  does  not  require  us  to  wander  off 
into  the  nebulous  regions  of  prophecy  and  specula- 
tion. Our  practical  duty  clearly  is  to  see  that  none 
of  the  elements  of  civilization  represented  by  the 
many  races  among  our  population  shall  be  suffered 
to  become  extinct  until  it  shall  have  crossed  its  genius 
with  that  of  others,  and  thereby  given  birth  to  some- 
thing higher  than  itself.  We  need  all  the  varieties 
that  are  at  hand.  We  cannot  spare  the  ethical 
mysticism  of  the  Jew  or  the  imaginative  sacramen- 
talism  of  the  Catholic.  We  need  that  Italian  soul 
which  has  lived  in  Dante  and  Savonarola,  in  Pe- 
trarch and  Boccaccio,  in  Michel  Angelo,  in  Mazzini 
and  Garibaldi,  and  which  is  not  dead  and  cannot 
die.  We  need  the  hardihood  of  the  Northman  and 
the  dreamy  yet  sturdy  spirit  of  the  Russian.  We 
must  preserve  the  scientific  thoroughness  and  meta- 
physical profundity  of  the  pre-imperial  German, 
and  his  genius  for  music  and  poetry.  All  these  must 
fructify  and  blend  with  the  equally  differentiated 
and  indispensable  gifts  and  energies  of  the  French 
and  British  stocks. 

By  way,  then,  of  a  practical  programme,  I  would 
venture  to  set  over  against  the  notion  of  the  melting- 


CULTURAL  CROSS-FERTILIZATION    145 

pot  and  the  opposite  doctrine  of  the  segregation  and 
in-breeding  of  our  national  groups,  the  following 
suggestions :  — 

{a)  That  every  immigrant  should  be  a  member 
of  a  society  of  his  own  national  origin,  and  also  a 
member  of  an  international  society,  composed  of 
representatives  of  as  many  different  peoples  as 
possible.  This  would  enable  him  to  keep  alive  and 
develop  the  culture  inherited  from  his  own  race, 
and  to  recognize  that  his  business  with  that  heritage 
is  to  engraft  it  upon  the  new  civilization  which  Amer- 
ica is  evolving.  It  would  protect  him  against  the 
provincialism  which  inevitably  results  from  isola- 
tion. Fellowship  with  Americans  of  different  origin 
in  an  international  society  would  lead  him  to  re- 
nounce the  vulgar  prejudices  of  race  against  race 
and  nation  against  nation,  to  respect  his  neighbour 
as  himself,  and  to  value  the  cultural  traditions  of 
other  peoples  as  highly  as  his  own. 

{b)  That  each  native-born  American  should  also 
be  a  member  of  an  International  society.  This 
would  wean  him  from  the  conceit  that  the  New  Eng- 
land Puritan  type,  or  the  Southern  cavalier,  or  in- 
deed any  mere  modification  of  what  is  called  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  is  the  final  cast  of  Americanism, 
upon  which  all  newcomers,  now  and  hereafter,  are 
to  be  moulded.  It  would  enable  him  both  to  learn 
and  to  teach,  both  to  receive  and  to  impart  the  quick- 
ening Impulses  of  mental  and  spiritual  life. 

{c)  That  there  should  be  intermarriage  between 
persons  of  different  national  descent;  —  between 
Jews  from  Russia,  from  Germany  and  from  Galicia, 


146     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

and  also  between  Jews  and  Gentiles  of  every  origin; 
between  Americans  who  have  been  Russians  or 
Hollanders  or  Italians  or  Czecho-Slovaks  and 
Americans  of  other  race. 

But  the  essential  element  in  the  plan  which  I  am 
sketching  is  the  deliberate  crossing,  by  means  of 
education  and  association,  of  the  various  cultures 
represented;  and  its  success  need  not  depend  upon 
an  extensive  physical  inter-breeding  of  racial  and 
national  types.  Although  I  believe  profoundly  in 
the  beneficence  of  "  mixed  marriages  "  of  this  kind, 
I  yet  recognize  that  the  spiritual  element  in  the 
process  is  the  most  important  one  from  the  national 
standpoint,  and  that  this  can  be  secured,  if  necessary, 
without  the  other. 

{d)  One  important  factor  in  such  an  enterprise 
would  be  the  establishment  of  State  or  municipal 
theatres,  which  should  not  be  confined  to  the  pro- 
duction of  plays  in  English,  nor  yet  restricted  (as 
our  foreign  theatres  now  are)  to  the  work  of  any 
single  race  or  nation.  I  look  for  the  time  when  we 
shall  have  polyglot  theatres,  maintained  at  the  pub- 
lic expense  (for  there  is  no  more  objection  to  the 
public  endowment  of  a  theatre  than  to  that  of  any 
other  kind  of  school),  in  which,  on  alternate  days 
or  weeks,  there  shall  be  plays  in  English,  French, 
German,  Swedish,  Russian,  Italian,  and  Yiddish, 
presented  by  members  of  those  races  who  have  been 
bred  in  the  traditions  which  the  plays  reflect.  I  also 
hope  that  when  this  time  comes,  such  plays  will  at- 
tract audiences  not  only  of  persons  of  the  same 
antecedents  as  the  performers,  but  of  citizens  of 


CULTURAL  CROSS-FERTILIZATION    147 

every  origin.  We  shall  not  be,  relatively  to  our  op- 
portunities, an  educated  nation  until  every  one  of  our 
citizens  is  able  to  appreciate  plays  in  at  least  four 
languages.  To  remain  content  with  less  than  this 
is  as  foolish  a  neglect  of  our  spiritual  resources  as  it 
would  be  to  leave  our  coal  mines  unworked  and  use 
only  wood  for  fuel. 

(e)  As  the  readiest  means  of  rendering  such  a 
scheme  possible  and  profitable,  we  should  inaugu- 
rate in  our  high  schools  and  universities  a  systematic 
study  of  what  has  been  called  the  Science  of  Civiliza- 
tions. For  this  idea  I  am  indebted  to  Professor 
Felix  Adler,  of  New  York,  who  has  already  set  on 
foot  a  number  of  efforts  towards  its  realization. 
This  science  might,  for  practical  purposes,  be  grafted 
on  to  the  study  either  of  history  or  of  sociology. 
Its  concrete  details  (such  as  the  preparation  of 
text-books  and  the  delivery  of  courses  of  lectures  by 
persons  expert  in  the  culture-history  of  particular 
nations)  could  readily  be  worked  out  by  any  body 
of  educators,  as  soon  as  they  had  caught  the  vision 
and  appreciated  the  high  promise  of  the  scheme. 

The  conception  which  we  are  to  realize,  in  work- 
ing out  our  national  evolution,  is  that  which  was  so 
well  expressed  by  Mazzini,  when  he  said  that  "  Na- 
tions are  the  citizens  of  humanity,  just  as  individuals 
are  the  citizens  of  a  nation."  The  American  doc- 
trine of  equality,  in  the  only  sense  in  which  it  can  be 
true  at  all,  is  true  of  peoples  collectively  as  well  as 
of  men  individually.  The  peoples  of  foreign  birth 
or  descent  in  this  country  are  here  because  America 
needs  them  as  much  as  they  need  America.     Had 


148     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

they  not  been  needed,  they  would  not  have  been 
permitted  to  come.  Each  national  stock  is  the  bearer 
of  some  mental  or  spiritual  gift  which  is  unique, 
and  which  we  cannot  afford  to  lose.  But  immigra- 
tion is  a  failure  unless  it  Is  so  dealt  with  as  to  pro- 
duce reciprocal  benefits  both  to  America  and  to  the 
newcomers  whom  she  receives.  The  fusion  of  these 
many  cultures  will  result  in  each  of  them  shedding 
whatever  is  undesirable  or  unadaptable  to  the  Amer- 
ican environment;  and,  at  last,  in  the  merging  of 
them  all  Into  a  distinctively  American  civilization 
which  shall  transcend  them  all. 

It  Is  In  the  nature  of  such  a  new  enterprise  In 
human  evolution  that  Its  final  outcome  should  be 
unpredictable.  But  If  it  be  undertaken  with  due 
regard  to  the  lessons  of  history,  and  In  the  catholic 
spirit  of  American  democracy.  It  cannot  be  doubted 
that  the  result  must  be  of  surpassing  excellence.  In- 
deed, the  very  reason  why  it  cannot  be  predicted  is 
the  certainty  that  it  will  be  nobler  and  more  splendid 
than  anything  we  can  now  Imagine.  No  observer 
in  England,  in  the  days  Immediately  following  the 
Norman  Conquest,  could  have  foreseen  the  work 
of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  or  the  richly  diversified  and 
yet  unified  nation  which  lives  Immortally  In  "  The 
Canterbury  Tales."  Nor  could  any  thinker  In 
Chaucer's  time  have  prophesied  the  advent  of  Shake- 
speare and  the  world  he  mirrored.  When  the  seeds 
of  the  Renaissance  were  sown,  the  harvest,  although 
certain,  was  Incalculable.  The  discovery  of  the  New 
World,  the  unprecedented  outburst  of  mental  life 
and  genius  in  many  lands,  the  invention  of  printing, 


CULTURAL  CROSS-FERTILIZATION    149 

and  the  power,  through  science,  of  achieving  the 
imperium  hominis  of  Bacon,  were  all  hidden  in  the 
haze  of  the  morning  twilight.  Yet,  looking  back, 
we  now  can  see  that  these  divine  achievements  of 
the  race  were  the  natural  results  of  the  causes  to 
which  we  trace  them. 

And  so,  although  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what 
America  shall  be,  we  know  that,  if  she  be  true  to  her 
own  genius  and  respond  worthily  to  her  unrivalled 
opportunity,  her  achievement,  like  her  resources, 
will  be  more  precious  for  mankind  than  that  of  all 
earlier  times.  Rich  as  her  history  already  is  in  great 
men,  superb  as  is  the  accomplishment  represented  by 
the  names  of  Lincoln  and  Washington,  of  Emerson 
and  Lowell,  and  of  her  great  inventors  and  men  of 
science,  her  future  history  will  prove  all  these  to 
have  been  but 

August  anticipations,  symbols,  types 
Of  a  dim  splendour  ever  on  before. 


CHAPTER   XI 

"my  country,  right  or  wrong" 

A  NAVAL  officer,  flushed  with  enthusiasm  and 
perhaps  just  faintly  exhilarated  with  wine, 
proposing  a  toast  after  dinner,  is  hardly  the  person 
to  whom  one  would  look  for  a  satisfactory  and  uni- 
versally applicable  code  of  patriotic  ethics.  If  he 
had  not  been  dining,  and  could  not  be  suspected  of 
wining,  it  seems  fairly  obvious  that  the  code  which 
such  a  gentleman  might  propound,  even  though  it 
were  entirely  sound  in  its  application  to  men  of  his 
own  profession,  might  not  be  the  right  one  for  citi- 
zens in  general.  The  naval  or  military  officer  is 
pledged  to  a  discipline  and  an  unquestioning  obedi- 
ence to  the  constituted  authorities  of  his  Govern- 
ment which  make  his  position  radically  different 
from  that  of  the  lay  citizen. 

The  business  of  a  fire  brigade  is  to  put  out  fires, 
not  to  let  them  burn  while  they  discuss  their  causes. 
The  business  of  an  army  and  navy  is  to  win  wars, 
not  to  debate  their  origin  or  to  suspend  action  until 
they  have  independently  satisfied  themselves  that 
the  cause  in  which  they  are  commanded  to  fight  is  a 
perfectly  just  and  equitable  one.  The  house  would 
burn  down  while  the  firemen  were  investigating;  the 
war  Would  be  won  by  the  enemy  before  the  army 
and  navy  had  concluded  their  deliberations.     While 


"MY  COUNTRY,  RIGHT  OR  WRONG"  151 

In  his  capacity  as  citizen,  and  when  not  engaged  upon 
professional  duty,  the  soldier  or  sailor  has  the  same 
right  to  form  and  express  opinions  on  national  pol- 
icy as  the  rest  of  us,  the  situation  for  him  becomes 
entirely  changed  when  he  is  on  duty. 

We  might  concede,  therefore,  that  the  dogma  of 
Decatur  (which  a  Chicago  newspaper  has  for  years 
been  reciting  daily,  with  the  somnolent  regularity  of 
a  Churchman  reciting  his  Creed)  is  true  and  valid 
for  sailors  and  soldiers  in  their  official  capacity,  and 
yet  deny  its  truth  and  validity  for  the  rest  of  the 
nation.  But,  as  we  shall  see,  there  are  strong  rea- 
sons why  we  cannot  make  even  this  concession. 

For  it  cannot  be  said  that  a  dogma,  whether  of 
theology  or  of  politics,  is  true  and  valid  for  any- 
body so  long  as  it  is  expressed  in  such  loose  terms 
that  it  has  no  single,  definite,  and  unmistakable 
meaning.  Now  this  is  the  trouble  with  the  phrase 
from  Decatur's  toast  It  may  m^ean  at  least  five  or 
six  different  things,  every  successive  one  of  which 
is  worse  than  the  others.  But  let  us  first  construct 
a  few  parallel  watchwords  on  the  same  principle  :  — 

"  My  mother,  drunk  or  sober." 

"  My  wife,  faithful  or  unfaithful." 

"  My  religion,  true  or  false." 

"  My  city,  good  or  bad." 

"  My  partner,  honest  or  dishonest." 

Can  anybody  point  to  a  single  reason  for  rejecting 
these  variations  which  would  not  be  equally  decisive 
against  the  original  theme?  Why  may  not  a  priest, 
at  the  command  of  his  superiors  or  from  regard  to 
a  declaration  made  years  ago,  proclaim  doctrines 


152     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

which  he  no  longer  believes  to  be  true?  Why  may 
not  a  merchant  endorse  or  profit  by  the  dishonest 
procedure  of  his  partner?  If  a  man's  mother,  while 
drunk,  smashes  his  neighbour's  windows,  why  should 
he  not  declare  her  justified  and  refuse  to  make 
amends?  On  the  other  hand,  if  these  courses  are 
morally  impossible,  as  they  are,  how  can  It  be  right 
to  preach  or  act  upon  the  parrot-cry  of  "  My  coun- 
try, right  or  wrong  "  ? 

But,  waiving  for  the  moment  the  obvious  moral 
objections  to  the  maxim,  let  us  set  forth  the  case 
against  it  on  the  score  of  its  many  possible  mean- 
ings;—  reminding  ourselves,  while  doing  so,  that  if 
a  word  or  phrase  may  mean  anything  it  actually 
means  nothing.  The  saying,  "  My  country,  right 
or  wrong,"  is  susceptible  at  least  of  the  following 
five  interpretations :  — 

(a)  "I  will  stand  by  my  country  whether  she  is 
right  or  wrong.  I  will  fight  for  her  with  the  same 
enthusiasm,  and  back  up  her  demands  for  annexa- 
tions or  indemnities  with  the  same  zeal,  whether 
these  are  just  or  unjust." 

(b)  "I  will  give  up  the  whole  question  of  right- 
ness  or  wrongness,  and  close  my  mind  to  the  inquiry. 
My  country's  decision  shall  be  to  me  as  the  word  of 
God,  which  I  will  accept  with  unquestioning  rever- 
ence. The  President  and  the  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Affairs  shall  be  to  me  as  a  Pope  and  a  Cardinal 
Penitentiary,  and  what  they  decide  I  will  accept  as 
the  devout  Romanist  accepts  a  pronouncement  ex 
cathedra  from  the  Vatican.  In  short,  I  will  believe 
my  country  right  even  though  all  the  rest  of  the 


"MY  COUNTRY,  RIGHT  OR  WRONG"   153 

world  declares  her  wrong  and  I  know  nothing  about 
the  matter  of  my  own  knowledge.  If  her  authorities 
put  an  onion  in  my  mouth  and  tell  me  it  is  an  apple, 
an  apple  it  shall  be." 

(c)  "  I  will  swear  that  my  country  is  right, 
whether  I  believe  it  or  not;  and  with  all  the  more 
emphasis  if  I  don't.  What  is  a  lie,  that  one  should 
hesitate  to  tell  it  for  the  honour  or  advantage  of 
one's  country?  " 

(d)  "  If  I  think  her  wrong,  I  will  keep  silence, 
and  allow  others  to  assume  that  I  believe  her  to  be 
right.  This  would  only  be  a  lie  of  silence  anyway, 
and  surely  that  is  common  enough  in  daily  life,  as 
well  as  in  international  politics!  " 

(e)  '*  Even  though  I  know  my  country  to  be 
wrong,  and  confess  as  much  to  myself  and  to  my 
fellow-countrymen,  I  will  so  speak  and  act  that 
the  rest  of  the  world  shall  believe  that  I  think  her 
right." 

In  whichever  of  these  senses  the  aphorism  be  con- 
strued, it  is  a  justification,  gratuitously  and  gener- 
ously presented  by  its  American  author  and  his 
followers,  to  any  present  or  future  enemy  of  the  Re- 
public. Whether  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  the  rest  of 
those  who  repeat  it  intend  this  use  to  be  made  of  it  is 
not  clear.  Presumably  they  do  not;  but  that  it  can 
and  will  be  so  used  is  certain.  When  the  President 
of  the  United  States  drew  his  distinction  between 
the  German  people  and  "  the  Government  that 
speaks  for  them,"  what  was  to  prevent  their  answer- 
ing that  in  tolerating  that  Government  and  backing- 
it  in  all  its  piracies  and  murders  they  had  only  acted 


154     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

upon  the  principle  which  so  many  influential  Ameri- 
cans have  accepted  from  Stephen  Decatur?  "  Place 
whatever  interpretation  you  like  upon  the  maxim," 
they  might  have  said,  "  we  shall  maintain  that  all 
that  we  have  done  at  the  behest  of  our  Government 
for  the  last  forty  years,  and  particularly  since  Aug- 
ust, 1 9 14,  Is  compendiously  justified  out  of  your  own 
mouths." 

And  unless  we  are  prepared  to  take  the  ground 
that  what  Is  sauce  for  the  goose  is  not  sauce  for  the 
gander,  —  unless  we  claim  that  America  is  free  to 
make  her  own  code  for  her  own  exclusive  use,  while 
the  rest  of  the  world  must  abide  by  the  standards 
of  ordinary  morality,  —  we  shall  never  be  able  to 
rebut  this  defence.  The  invasion  of  Belgium  and 
the  plundering  and  enslavement  of  its  people,  the 
hideous  devastation  of  French  territory,  the  massacre 
of  the  Armenians,  the  wantonly  illegal  assassination 
of  sleeping  civilians  by  bombs  from  the  air  and  of 
passengers  and  non-combatants  by  torpedoes  from 
beneath  the  sea,  can  all  be  whitewashed  If  the  maxim 
*'  My  country,  right  or  wrong,"  is  once  admitted  to 
be  binding  upon  citizens.  According  to  this  doc- 
trine, the  English  who  supported  George  III  against 
the  American  Colonies  were  patriots  and  heroes; 
and  there  never  has  been  and  never  can  be  an  unjust 
war,  unless  It  be  one  not  commanded  by  the  consti- 
tuted authorities  of  any  nation. 

At  this  point,  however,  we  may  be  impatiently 
interrupted,  and  told  that  there  Is  another  possible 
meaning  to  Decatur's  maxim  which  we  have  thus  far 
omitted.     It  may  mean  (we  shall  hear)  that,  Inas- 


"MY  COUNTRY,  RIGHT  OR  WRONG"   155 

much  as  my  country  Is  my  country,  I  must,  willynilly 
and  Inevitably,  stand  by  It  right  or  wrong;  but  that, 
while  doing  so,  I  am  under  no  necessity  to  stifle  my 
moral  judgment  or  to  refrain  from  using  my  utmost 
efforts  towards  Inducing  my  country  to  take  the 
course  that  I  believe  to  be  right.  Suppose,  for  ex- 
ample, that  my  country  engages  in  a  war  which  I 
think  unjust.  When  hundreds  of  thousands  of  my 
fellow-citizens  are  risking  their  lives  In  that  cause, 
it  Is  inconceivable  that  I  can  attempt  to  obstruct  the 
furnishing  of  them  with  food,  munitions,  and  other 
supplies.  But  I  should  still  be  free  to  denounce  the 
Administration  which  had  caused  the  war,  to  insist 
that  peace  be  made,  and  that  compensation,  in 
money  or  territory,  should  be  given  to  the  victims 
of  its  aggression.  I  should  thus  be  standing  by  my 
country  even  when  I  thought  her  wrong,  but  should 
at  the  same  time  be  doing  everything  in  my  power  to 
set  her  right. 

Let  us  consider  a  concrete  instance  from  recent 
history.  During  the  Boer  War  there  was  a  large 
party  in  England  upon  whom  was  fastened  the 
epithet  "  pro-Boer."  These  men  and  women,  rightly 
or  wrongly,  were  convinced  that  the  Tory  and  im- 
perialistic Government  which  was  then  in  oflice  had 
forced  the  war  upon  the  Transvaal  Republic  in  the 
interests  of  the  gold-  and  diamond-mining  capitalists 
and  of  the  megalomaniac  Imperialism  of  Mr.  Cecil 
Rhodes.  They  conducted  an  agitation  all  over  the 
country,  by  public  meetings  and  in  the  Press,  their 
chief  spokesman  being  the  brilliant  (and  then  bit- 
terly hated)  Mr.  David  Lloyd  George.     Their  cry 


156     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

was  that  the  war  must  be  ended  and  justice  done  to 
the  Boers.  But,  so  far  as  my  memory  serves  me, 
not  a  single  member  of  this  party  ever  suggested, 
or  dreamed  of  suggesting,  that  the  British  soldiers 
in  the  field  should  be  left  in  the  lurch,  that  there 
should  be  any  stinting  or  withholding  of  their  sup- 
plies, or  that  they  should  be  kept  so  few  as  to  be  in 
danger  of  annihilation.  None  of  the  opponents  of 
the  war  failed  to  rejoice  when  a  victory  occurred. 
When  Baden-Powell  and  his  garrison  in  Mafeking 
were  relieved  after  a  long  and  dreadful  siege,  the 
exultation  among  the  "  pro-Boers  "  was  not  less 
genuine  than  among  the  Tories. 

Soon  after  this  war  ended,  as  everybody  knows, 
there  was  a  change  of  Government  in  England. 
The  party  responsible  for  it  suffered  the  heaviest 
political  defeat  in  the  history  of  the  country,  and 
their  successors  in  office  (many  of  whom  during  the 
contest  had  been  howled  at  as  white-livered  traitors, 
and  in  some  cases  had  actually  gone  in  peril  of  their 
lives)  proceeded  with  general  consent  to  bestow  on 
the  Boers  a  far  more  satisfactory  form  of  self-gov- 
ernment than  that  which  had  been  taken  from  them. 
Have  we  not  here,  then,  it  may  be  urged,  an  instance 
of  the  application  of  Decatur's  maxim  in  its  best 
sense? 

In  reply  to  this,  there  are  two  things  to  be  urged. 
The  first  is  that  there  has  never  been  a  case  in  which 
those  who  mouthed  the  watchword  "  My  country, 
right  or  wrong,"  have  applied  or  thought  of  apply- 
ing it  to  such  a  course  of  conduct  as  that  pursued  by 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  his  associates  in  connection 


"MY  COUNTRY,  RIGHT  OR  WRONG"  157 

with  the  Boer  War.  This  doctrine  was  constantly 
invoked  against  the  "pro-Boers"  by  their  opponents. 
The  Chicago  journal  which  hurls  it  at  its  readers  in 
large  type  every  day,  has  also  demonstrated  in  a 
hundred  editorials  that  it  means  the  precise  opposite 
of  such  an  ethical  and  critical  patriotism.  In  the 
very  spirit  of  Treitschke  and  Bernhardi,  it  repeatedly 
suggested  (before  April,  1917)  that  America  should 
seize  Mexico,  because  that  was  easy,  but  keep  clear 
of  the  European  War,  because  that  would  be  difficult 
and  costly  and  its  profits  problematical. 

The  second  reply  is  that  nobody  who  really  meant 
to  insist  that  his  country  should  be  always  in  the 
right,  even  though  he  recognized  that  in  the  event 
of  her  making  war  in  a  wrong  cause  he  would  be 
obliged  to  stand  by  her,  would  dream  of  embodying 
his  conviction  in  such  a  silly  expression.  It  is  the 
maxim  not  of  one  who  intends  vigilantly  to  use  his 
moral  judgment,  but  of  one  who  seeks  an  excuse  for 
abandoning  it.  It  is  the  doctrine  not  of  a  free  man 
but  of  a  slave;  and  not  even  of  a  manly  slave  who 
revolts  against  his  servitude,  but  of  one  who  loves 
his  bonds,  and  dreads  the  responsibility  of  inde- 
pendence. 

But  in  this  maxim  there  lurks  a  further  confusion 
of  thought.  What  is  "my  country"?  In  earlier 
chapters  we  have  attempted,  with  the  help  of  Mr. 
Franklin  Lane  as  well  as  by  our  own  analysis,  to 
answer  this  question;  and  the  conclusion  to  which 
we  were  led  is  that  our  country  consists  essentially 
of  the  idealizing  will  which  brought  it  to  the  birth 
through  the   struggle  of  the   Revolution,   and  has 


158     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

ever  since  been  growing  more  fully  conscious  of  its 
own  nature  and  direction.  If  this  be  true,  —  if 
America  be  in  very  fact  the  spirit  that  begot  Wash- 
ington and  Lincoln,  that  freed  the  slaves,  worked 
out  salvation  for  the  Cubans,  and  returned  the  in- 
demnity to  China,  —  then  it  must  follow  that  Amer- 
ica ceases  to  be  herself  whenever  she  acts  in  a  spirit 
contrary  to  these  precedents.  In  other  words,  when 
she  is  wrong  she  is  not  our  country.  When  a  man 
becomes  insane,  he  is  no  longer  himself;  he  is  alien- 
ated from  his  true  nature  and  character.  Your 
mother  drunk  is  not  your  mother.  America  wrong 
is  America  de-Americanized,  making  shipwreck  of 
her  faith,  undoing  her  own  history,  reverting  to  the 
type  of  the  ancient  despotisms  against  which  her  very 
being  is  a  protest. 

Let  a  militaristic  and  aggressive  party  grasp  the 
reins  of  government  in  this  Republic,  and  set  out  on 
a  policy  of  conquest  and  annexation.  It  well  may 
be  that,  with  the  immense  resources  in  men  and 
munitions  that  could  be  mustered,  it  would  succeed 
in  building  up  a  world-empire,  and  find  leaders  who 
could  extend  the  dominion  of  the  American  people 
as  widely  as  Julius  Caesar  spread  the  sway  of  what 
he  pretended  was  the  populus  Romanus.  But  before 
this  process  had  been  carried  very  far,  it  would  be- 
gin to  be  seen  that  America  had  utterly  changed  her 
nature  in  embarking  upon  such  an  enterprise.  She 
could  not  do  this  and  remain  the  Republic  that  we 
know  and  love.  The  commanders  who  carried  out 
her  perverted  will  would  quickly  become,  as  the  serv- 
ants of  republican  Rome  became,  her  tyrants  and 


"MY  COUNTRY,  RIGHT  OR  WRONG"  159 

dictators ;  for  such  imperialism  brings  the  imperator, 
with  the  certainty  of  natural  law.  And  all  who, 
against  their  reason  and  conscience,  acquiesced  in 
the  perversion,  justifying  their  cowardice  by  the  cry 
of  "  My  country,  right  or  wrong,"  would  live  to 
learn  the  truth  of  the  contention  that  our  country 
wrong  is  not  our  country  at  all;  that  America  is 
synonymous  with  America  right;  that  the  Republic 
free  and  freedom-loving,  free  and  working  for 
freedom  everywhere,  is  the  only  alternative  to  the 
suicide  of  the  real  America. 

Logical  and  moral  consistency  is  never  the  strong 
point  of  your  jingo  counterfeit-patriot.  Conse- 
quently, it  was  not  surprising  to  discover  that  the 
people  who  from  19 14  to  191 7  dinned  the  Decatur 
motto  into  our  ears,  were  throughout  that  time 
clamorous  in  their  criticism  of  the  Administration 
for  its  conduct  of  our  foreign  affairs.  Yet,  after 
they  had  thus  violated  their  own  favourite  maxim, 
when  America  was  at  last  forced  to  enter  the  Euro- 
pean War,  they  at  once  became  sternly  insistent  that 
nobody,  on  penalty  of  being  classed  as  a  traitor, 
should  attempt  in  any  way  to  safeguard  the  Republic 
against  being  false  to  itself  in  the  objects  for  which 
it  fought. 

Now,  while  Decatur's  maxim,  the  moment  one 
scans  it  closely,  is  seen  to  be  either  false  or  foolish, 
and  thoroughly  unsuitable  as  a  watchword  for  ra- 
tional men  in  a  free  country,  it  nevertheless  must  be 
conceded  that  the  problem  of  conserving  the  right 
of  free  speech  in  war  time,  while  not  abusing  it,  is 
one  of  the  most  difficult  in  the  whole  range  of  theo- 


i6o     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

retical  or  practical  ethics.  Freedom  without  free 
speech  cannot  exist.  The  liberty  to  utter  one's  con- 
victions is  its  heart;  and  if  the  heart  is  injured,  the 
body  must  die.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  obvious 
that  if  even  a  small  minority  —  say,  ten  per  cent.  — 
of  the  population  of  a  country  at  war  with  a  power- 
ful enemy  were  allowed  to  fill  the  newspapers  and 
the  public  forums  with  denunciations  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  its  policy,  the  effect  of  their  action  must 
be  precisely  the  same  as  if  they  were  deliberately 
committing  treason.  They  would  not  only  be  giving 
aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy,  but  they  would  be  in 
serious  danger  of  enlisting  the  sympathy  of  the  neu- 
tral world  on  the  enemy's  behalf  and  against  their 
own  nation.  Their  voices  would  be  worth  more 
to  the  foe  than  many  thousands  of  soldiers  and 
tons  of  munitions.  If  this  happened  here  to-day,  and 
our  Government  were  driven  by  the  recognition  of 
these  facts  to  a  gagging  of  all  opposition  and  a 
temporary  withdrawal  of  the  right  of  free  speech, 
our  enemy  would  promptly  pervert  this  into  a 
plausible  contention  that  the  watchwords  of  Ameri- 
can freedom  were  nothing  but  the  mouthings  of 
conscious  hypocrisy. 

Difficult  as  this  problem  is  in  every  democratic 
country  in  time  of  war,  the  confusion  is  worse  con- 
founded in  the  United  States  than  anywhere  else, 
by  reason  of  the  heterogeneity  of  its  population. 
It  would  be  the  same,  so  far  as  the  nature  of  the 
problem  is  concerned,  if  we  were  at  war  with  Russia 
or  Italy  as  it  is  now  that  we  are  at  war  with  Ger- 
many; although  probably  the  extreme  ability  and 


"MY  COUNTRY,  RIGHT  OR  WRONG"  i6i 

unscrupulousness  of  the  German  system  of  espionage 
makes  it  more  acute  in  fact.  The  two  great  comph- 
cations  are  the  instinctive  leaning  of  a  few  Ameri- 
cans of  German  origin  to  the  side  of  the  enemy,  and 
the  exploitation  of  this  sentiment  by  the  agents  of 
the  enemy's  Government. 

The  way  in  which,  ever  since  August,  19 14,  Ger- 
man propaganda  in  America  has  been  organized, 
inspired  and  paid  for  by  Berlin  is  notorious  and 
undeniable.  Plot  after  plot  has  been  traced  to  the 
doors  of  the  German  Consulates  and  to  the  Embassy 
at  Washington.  Since  we  entered  the  war,  we  have 
seen  our  Courts  convict  official  representatives  of 
the  Prussian  autocracy  for  having,  with  one  hand, 
sought  to  induce  a  neighbouring  people  to  arise  and 
stab  us  in  the  back,  and  to  bring  about  the  incendiary 
destruction  of  our  munition-plants  and  other  supply- 
centres,  while  with  the  other  they  have  been  exploit- 
ing the  pacifist  sentiment  and  paying  for  the  promul- 
gation of  the  idea  that  war  is  in  itself,  and  under  all 
circumstances,  wicked  and  inhuman.  The  result  of 
these  disclosures  is  to  prove,  to  everybody  except 
those  who  will  not  learn,  that  the  expression  of 
pacifist  sentiments,  or  of  the  opinion  that  America 
has  sinned  in  entering  this  particular  war,  is  a  play- 
ing into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Americans  who  so 
act  are  doing  exactly  what  the  Prussian  autocracy 
would  have  them  do;  they  are  doing  gratuitously 
what  that  autocracy  would  be  willing  enough  to  pay 
them  for  doing. 

Under  such  circumstances,  recognizing,  as  they 
needs  must,  that  they  are  a  small  minority,  and  that 


1 62     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

the  general  judgment  not  only  of  their  own  country- 
men but  of  the  rest  of  humanity  is  decisively  against 
them,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  pro-German  Americans 
in  general,  and  of  pacifists  in  particular,  to  impose 
upon  themselves  a  self-denying  ordinance,  a  volun- 
tary censorship.  A  most  honourable  instance  of  this 
kind  of  action  was  furnished  when  England  entered 
this  war.  Lord  Morley  of  Blackburn  (better  known 
to  his  American  admirers  by  his  plain  name  of  John 
Morley),  veteran  statesman,  brilliant  historian, 
biographer  and  philosophic  thinker,  dissented  from 
the  opinion  of  his  colleagues  in  the  Cabinet  and  of 
the  country  at  large.  His  dissent  was  shared  by  Mr. 
John  Burns,  then  also  in  the  Cabinet.  These  two 
gentlemen  were  not  pro-German;  heaven  forbid  that 
I  should  insult  them  by  suggesting  that  they  werel 
But  they  thought  that  it  was  not  England's  quarrel, 
and  that  she  should  have  been  neutral.  Finding, 
however,  that  the  tide  of  the  national  judgment  was 
against  them,  and  realizing  that  their  country  was 
fighting  for  its  very  life,  they  instantly  resigned  their 
offices  and  retired  into  a  silence  which  neither  of 
them  has  broken  by  a  single  word  throughout  these 
desperate  years.  No  coercion  was  exercised  upon 
them.  Had  they  chosen,  they  could  have  gone  from 
end  to  end  of  Britain,  preaching  their  doctrine  to  the 
whole  nation;  —  yes,  and  to  all  the  world.  But 
they  recognized  that  in  the  circumstances  which  the 
war  produced  the  exercise  of  their  constitutional 
right  of  free  speech  was  morally  impossible.  Ac- 
cordingly, like  Milton,  they  "  preferred  a  blame- 
less silence";  thereby  manifesting  a  high  and  fine 


"MY  COUNTRY,  RIGHT  OR  WRONG"  163 

patriotism,    and   also   the   self-control  which  is    an 
implied  condition  of  all  democratic  privileges. 

The  most  specious  form  which  the  business  of 
giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy  has  taken 
among  us  was  the  organization  of  public  meetings 
to  inquire  why  we  were  at  war,  and  to  nag  the  Gov- 
ernment into  publishing  a  full  and  detailed  state- 
ment of  the  terms  on  which  we  should  be  willing 
to  conclude  peace.  We  must  make  allowance  for 
the  simplicity  of  youthful  zeal  in  the  case  of  some 
of  the  organizers  of  these  meetings,  and  for  the 
na'ivete  of  sentimental  provincialism  in  others.  Yet 
it  was  obvious  to  everybody  who  scanned  the  lists 
of  promoters  and  endorsers  of  this  propaganda 
(and  still  more  to  those  who  looked  over  the  audi- 
ences they  convened,  and  noticed  what  points  in  the 
speeches  were  received  with  stony  silence  and  what 
points  evoked  deafening  applause),  that  the  whole 
thing,  in  fact  and  effect,  whatever  it  may  have  been 
in  intention,  was  a  move  to  prevent  America  from 
striking  hard  and  effectually  in  the  war,  to  lame  its 
arm,  to  discourage  its  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  cor- 
respondingly to  strengthen  and  encourage  the  enemy. 
The  very  question,  "  Why  are  we  at  war?  "  is  one 
that  cannot  be  asked  by  any  grown-up  American 
who  knows  the  history  of  the  Republic  and  has  fol- 
lowed intelligently  the  course  of  events  during  the 
last  four  years.  The  assertion  that  our  war  aims 
were  unknown  was  absurdly  false.  Before  we 
entered  the  war,  the  President,  in  his  Address  to  the 
Senate  of  January  22nd,  1917,  had  made  a  full  and 
splendid  statement  of  them;  and  since  then,  in  his 


1 64     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

various  public  utterances,  he  has  not  abandoned 
a  single  one  of  the  principles  he  then  laid  down. 
There  is  something  strabismic  about  the  mental 
vision  of  an  American  who  could  read  these  speeches 
and  not  recognize  them  as  classical  extensions  to 
mankind  in  general  of  the  principles  upon  which  the 
Republic  was  organized  and  has  lived  for  a  hundred 
and  forty  years.  The  President's  words  are  not 
only  a  statement  of  America's  aims,  they  are  the 
statement;  that  is,  they  are  such  an  assertion  of  our 
position  as  any  competent  committee  of  patriotic 
Americans,  of  any  party,  desiring  to  interpret  the 
spirit  and  purposes  of  the  American  nation,  must 
have  drawn  up.  They  can  be  overlooked  or  mis- 
trusted only  by  persons  who  are  either  strangely 
ignorant  or  are  blinded  by  secret  affection  for  that 
colossal  embodiment  of  all  that  is  un-American  and 
anti-democratic,  the  Prussian  State. 

The  duty  of  true  "  pacifists  "  at  this  juncture  is 
to  see  that  our  terms  of  peace  are  vigorously  fought 
for  and  lived  up  to  when  our  cause  triumphs.  Their 
demand  for  a  statement  of  America's  principles  and 
objects  is  as  superfluous  as  it  is  unpatriotic.  Let 
them  see  to  it  that  the  terms  drawn  up  and  promul- 
gated before  we  went  to  war  are  made  known  to 
every  person  the  country  over,  as  well  as  to  the  rest 
of  the  world.  Their  duty  is  not  to  back  what  they 
believe  to  be  wrong,  but  to  insist  on  the  maintenance 
of  what  they  cannot  deny  to  be  right.  In  the  pro- 
gramme for  world-organization  and  for  the  super- 
national  control  of  the  forces  of  mankind  which 
Mr.   Wilson  has   repeatedly  outlined   as   the   only 


"MY  COUNTRY,  RIGHT  OR  WRONG"  165 

means  of  securing  and  maintaining  an  equitable 
peace,  we  have  the  very  voice  of  America  right, 
America  true  to  its  own  genius,  faithful  to  the  gos- 
pel by  which  it  lives.  Let,  then,  our  peace-lovers 
take  the  stand  that  these  principles  must  be  kept 
in  every  American  mind  and  heart,  so  that,  when 
the  time  for  establishing  peace  arrives,  there  shall 
be  no  danger  of  our  swerving  from  the  true  path 
by  reason  of  the  hatreds  and  resentments  which  the 
war  has  engendered. 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OF  AMERICANISM 

SEVERAL  times  in  these  pages  I  have  insisted, 
in  a  way  which  some  of  my  readers  may  have 
thought  strange,  upon  the  identity  of  spirit  between 
the  ideals  of  the  RepubHc  and  the  Christian  religion, 
regarded  in  its  historic  aspect  as  a  movement  for 
the  spiritual  unification  and  reformation  of  the  pres- 
ent world.  I  have  not  been  unconscious  of  the  ques- 
tions and  objections  to  which  this  identification 
might  give  rise;  but  I  have  of  set  purpose  deferred 
them  for  elucidation  in  this  chapter.  It  will  now 
be  possible,  I  trust,  to  make  it  clear  that  the  view  I 
advocate  can  be  adopted  by  Christians  of  all  denom- 
inations, and  also  by  Jews,  without  involving  the  re- 
jection of  any  doctrine  which  may  seem  to  them 
material  to  the  soundness  of  their  faith. 

That  most  of  what  we  call  the  world-religions 
have  included  among  their  objects  such  a  unification 
of  mankind  and  such  an  abolition  of  the  evils  which 
infest  the  life  of  nations,  is  a  statement  to  which 
history  in  every  page  bears  testimony.  Nor  can 
Christianity  be  considered  an  exception  to  this  rule, 
without  a  violent  distortion  of  the  language  of  its 
Founder  and  his  immediate  followers,  or  without 
ignoring  both  the  manifest  purpose  of  St.  Paul  and 
the  principles  on  which  the  Christian  Church  con- 


AMERICANISM:  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT   167 

sistently  acted,  from  the  time  of  St.  Paul  down  to 
and  beyond  the  Reformation.  When  the  Massa- 
chusetts Puritans  made  it  their  object  to  establish  a 
society  which  should  be  Church  and  State  in  one, 
however  narrow  and  biassed  their  conception  of  a 
Christian  Commonwealth  may  have  been,  they  were 
unquestionably  true  to  the  genius  of  their  religion  in 
feeling  that  it  demanded  an  organization  of  govern- 
mental character.  Christianity  reduced  to  the  di- 
mensions of  a  "  Sunday  religion,"  a  private  enter- 
prise merely  for  prayer  and  worship,  cut  off  from 
the  life  of  business,  science,  art  and  politics,  and 
declared  to  have  no  real  bearing  on  the  common 
life.  Is  Christianity  denatured.  It  was  meant,  as  Its 
Jewish  predecessor  and  parent  had  been  meant,  to 
animate  with  a  living  soul  each  nation  that  adopted 
It,  and  at  last  to  bring  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
together  in  a  free  brotherhood  of  mutual  benefi- 
cence. 

Now  if  this  be  true,  every  enterprise  which  Is 
directed  towards  the  same  goal,  whether  or  not 
overtly  associated  with  a  theological  creed,  and 
whether  It  bears  the  Christian  name  or  not,  must  be 
of  the  same  spirit  with  Christianity. 

But  the  Identity  of  goal  is  not  the  only  point  of 
contact  between  Americanism  and  the  historic  faith 
of  Europe.  There  Is  also,  In  several  vitally  im- 
portant respects,  an  Identity  of  method  as  well. 
Both  Christianity  and  American  democracy  Insist 
on  the  sacredness  and  worth  of  the  individual  human 
being,  and  both  Insist,  at  the  same  time,  that  the 
individual  Is  to  seek  his  true  self-fulfilment  by  abdi- 


1 68     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

eating  his  exclusive,  egocentric  individuality  and 
finding  a  larger  and  freer  life  in  the  service  of  the 
Whole  whereof  he  forms  a  part. 

Both  have  grasped  the  truth  that  man  needs  a 
twofold  emancipation.  He  must  be  set  free  first 
from  external  tyranny,  from  the  dictation  of  kings 
and  overlords,  and  secondly  from  internal  tyranny, 
the  debasing  slavery  of  self-absorption  and  self- 
worship.  If  America  has  been  less  successful  in 
realizing  the  latter  of  these  conditions  than  the 
former,  that  fault  or  misfortune  does  not  destroy 
the  fact  that  the  attainment  of  inward  liberation  has 
been  as  much  her  object  as  the  destruction  of  ex- 
ternal tyranny.  Experience  demonstrated  to  the 
Fathers  of  the  Republic  the  soundness  of  the  Chris- 
tian psychology.  It  was  in  freely  sacrificing  their 
self-interest  and  dedicating  their  lives  and  fortunes 
to  the  perilous  cause  of  their  country's  freedom 
that  they  found  their  own  souls,  and  became  the 
heroes  and  patriots  whom  subsequent  generations 
have  venerated. 

When  we  recognize  that  every  religion  in  its 
mature  development  is  a  moral  ideal  which  has  be- 
come the  living  dynamic  of  the  will  of  a  nation  or 
nations  devoted  to  its  actualization,  the  propriety  of 
assuming  that  Americanism  possesses  a  religious 
aspect  is  seen  to  be  incontestable.  Now,  such  a  liv- 
ing ideal  was  Judaism  in  antiquity;  such,  indeed,  it 
still  remains  at  the  present  day.  This,  too,  is  what 
Christianity  was  from  the  beginning  until  the  seven- 
teenth century;  and  if  it  has  ceased  —  or  rather,  in 
so  far  as  it  has  ceased  —  to  be  this,  it  has  been  false 


AMERICANISM :  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT   169 

to  its  own  nature  and  to  the  inspiration  of  its  found- 
ers. Its  greatness  lay  always  in  its  national  rather 
than  in  its  merely  individual  appeal;  and  even  in  its 
degenerate  form,  —  when,  instead  of  looking  for  a 
renewed  society  of  men  on  earth,  it  placed  its  civitas 
Dei  wholly  beyond  the  grave,  —  the  very  retention 
of  the  word  civitas  shows  how  inseparable  from  it 
was  the  notion  of  a  governmentally  organized 
society. 

Using,  then,  the  word  "  religion  "  In  the  sense 
above  defined,  which,  I  submit,  is  a  sense  that  all  his- 
tory justifies,  it  may  next  be  affirmed  that  there  can 
be  no  nation  without  a  religion,  however  formless  or 
rudimentary  it  may  be.  Some  ideal,  some  standard 
of  what  human  life  should  become,  some  sense  of  a 
mission  to  the  world  at  large,  is  an  indispensable 
condition  of  nationhood.  And  America,  as  we  have 
seen,  has  a  very  definite  and  conscious  contribution 
to  make  to  the  democratic  federation  of  mankind. 
Mazzini,  with  a  soul  fired  by  the  great  struggle  for 
Italian  unification,  passionately  declared  that  '*  Italy 
is  itself  a  religion."  In  the  same  sense,  we  may  say 
that  America  is  itself  a  religion.  America,  as  a 
spiritual  being,  is  animated  by  an  ideal  and  charged 
with  a  gospel  which  it  needs  must  preach.  It  could 
not  rest  while  it  was  itself  half  slave  and  half  free, 
nor  can  it  ever  rest  until  freedom  has  been  won  for 
all  nations. 

But  neither,  without  being  false  to  its  own  nature, 
can  it  ever  seek  to  impose  its  ideals  or  forms  of 
government  by  force  upon  any  other  nation.  It 
recognizes  that  government  for  the  people  is  only 


170     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

half,  and  the  less  important  half,  of  genuine  democ- 
racy, the  heart  of  which  is  government  by  the  people. 
"  Work  out  your  own  salvation,"  is  its  watchword, 
since  it  is  in  and  through  the  "  working  "  that  men 
discover,  or  create,  their  higher  selfhood.  The 
American  evangel,  therefore,  must  always  seek  to 
propagate  itself  by  means  of  an  appeal  to  the  inde- 
pendent moral  judgment  of  others.  America  is,  as 
we  have  elsewhere  said,  an  example  and  working 
model  of  free  and  peaceful  federation  to  the  race. 
It  can  never  fight  except  in  self-defence,  or  in  the 
defence  of  some  weak  struggler  engaged  in  up- 
holding the  ideal  of  autonomous  democracy  against 
the  aggression  of  autocracy. 

Now,  in  order  to  be  an  internationalist,  one  must 
first  be  a  nationalist.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  in  a 
relation  without  believing  in  the  terms  that  it  con- 
nects. It  is  preposterous  to  believe  in  a  peaceful 
federation  of  nations  unless  one  begins  by  believing 
in  the  integrity  and  inviolability  of  those  distinct 
collective  personalities  which  we  call  nations.  The 
mission  of  a  democracy  in  the  world  is  to  encourage 
national  aspirations  everywhere,  and  to  work  for 
the  voluntary  acceptance  by  all  nations  of  a  super- 
national  government,  which  shall  not  only  secure 
their  freedom  from  aggression,  but  shall  also  pro- 
vide scope  for  the  achievement  by  each  of  its  dis- 
tinctive contribution  to  the  universal  welfare.  Only 
by  taking  such  a  view  of  its  mission  in  the  world  can 
a  free  people  escape  both  the  Scylla  of  aggressive 
jingoism  and  the  Charybdis  of  a  denationalized 
cosmopolitanism. 


AMERICANISM :  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT   171 

This  must  mean  that,  instead  of  living  directly 
and  exclusively  for  itself,  and  seeking  its  own  ag- 
grandizement at  the  expense  of  others,  a  nation 
must,  in  a  very  true  and  real  sense,  die  to  itself,  and 
find  its  true  life  in  promoting  the  free  life  of  other 
nations.  In  such  a  statement  there  is  nothing  either 
mystical  or  quixotic.  Ethics  recognizes  that  every 
man  must  be  regarded  simultaneously  as  an  end  in 
himself  —  that  is  to  say,  as  precious  and  worth- 
while on  his  own  account  —  and  as  a  means  to  the 
ends  of  others.  On  the  same  principle,  it  regards 
the  family  as  an  end  in  itself  which  must  never  be 
violated,  as  a  group  which  must  under  no  condition 
be  made  merely  an  instrument  for  the  benefit  of 
others.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  the  family  achieves 
its  own  purpose  and  its  own  happiness  only  when, 
through  the  discipline  of  which  it  is  the  vehicle,  it 
equips  each  of  its  members  for  some  career  of  effi- 
cient service  to  the  nation,  and  through  the  nation 
to  the  world.  If  it  were  only  an  end  to  itself,  if  it 
lived  exclusively  for  its  own  sake  and  with  no  out- 
look beyond,  it  would  degenerate,  and  all  its  mem- 
bers with  it.  Now,  the  view  of  the  nature  and  des- 
tiny of  a  nation  which  is  here  suggested  is  simply  an 
extension  of  that  which  nobody  denies  to  be  the  true 
conception  of  the  nature  and  purposes  of  the  family. 

Why  is  the  history  of  organized  mankind  so  full 
of  tragedy?  What  is  the  basis  of  fact  which  ex- 
plains, though  it  does  not  justify,  the  terrific  pessi- 
mism of  Schopenhauer's  conviction  that  the  will-to- 
iive  is  the  sin  of  sins,  the  very  root  of  evil  which 
must  be  extirpated?    Why  was  it  that  the  passionate 


172     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

humanity  of  Buddha  could  find  refuge  only  in  the 
prospect  of  the  utter  extinction  of  individual  self- 
consciousness?  At  bottom,  the  explanation  is  that 
individuals,  families  and  nations  have  missed  the 
true  law  of  their  relations,  and  madly  sought  to  live 
by  the  law  of  death  instead  of  by  that  of  life.  The 
doctrine  "  He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and 
he  that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it  "  is  too  much  of  a 
paradox,  does  too  much  violence  to  the  animal  in- 
stincts and  the  unenlightened  reason  of  men,  to 
secure  general  or  speedy  acceptance.  After  these 
measureless  aeons  of  evolutionary  struggle  we  have 
at  last  begun  to  perceive  the  soundness  of  this  ethi- 
cal law  as  regards  individuals,  and  perhaps  even  as 
regards  families;  but  its  application  to  the  life  of 
nations  can  scarcely  even  yet  be  said  to  have  begun. 
The  law  of  the  jungle,  the  conviction  that  each  must 
live  at  the  cost  of  all  other  life,  has  been  the  practical 
creed  of  nations;  and  the  tragedy  of  their  history 
results  precisely  from  this. 

If  there  were  no  other  way,  —  if  human  com- 
munities were  so  constituted  that  they  never  could 
transcend  a  principle  the  following  of  which  inevi- 
tably precipitates  them  into  disaster,  —  there  would 
be  ample  justification  for  the  pessimism  of  Buddha 
and  Schopenhauer,  which  at  its  root  is  the  same  with 
the  pessimism  of  St.  Augustine.  But  when  experi- 
ence has  demonstrated  the  possibility  of  an  alterna- 
tive course  which  will  avert  the  evils  that  the  law  of 
the  jungle  brings  upon  its  own  trail,  it  becomes  in- 
excusable to  groan  with  Koheleth  that  all  is  vanity, 
or  with  Schopenhauer  to  advocate  the  suicide  of  the 


AMERICANISM:  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT   173 

will-to-live.  Believers  in  the  uniformity  of  nature 
cannot  feel  that  a  principle  which  is  valid  and  fruit- 
ful in  one  department  of  human  life  will  fail  when  it 
is  extended  to  a  larger  sphere.  Moral  laws  are  as 
constant  as  any  of  the  other  regularities  of  the 
world.  If,  then,  in  the  paradox  of  achievement 
through  renunciation  we  have  found  the  true  way 
of  life  for  the  individual  and  the  family,  it  is  dis- 
tinctly unscientific  to  thrust  aside  the  probability  that 
a  like  procedure  in  the  case  of  nations  will  produce 
like  effects. 

Let  me  anticipate  an  obvious  objection  by  remind- 
ing the  reader  that  I  am  not  preaching  the  doctrine 
of  non-resistance,  or  passive  submission  by  the  weak 
to  the  tyranny  of  the  strong.  I  am  no  Tolstoian;  on 
the  contrary,  I  am,  at  all  events  in  this  matter,  the 
extreme  opposite  of  a  Tolstoian  —  viz.,  a  Christian. 
In  an  earlier  volume  ^  I  have  attempted  to  show  that 
Christ's  injunction  about  non-resistance  to  evil  was 
given  not  to  the  world  at  large,  but  only  to  a  hand- 
ful of  His  immediate  followers,  and  not  even  to 
them  as  a  counsel  for  ordinary  life,  but  distinctly  as 
a  rule  for  their  guidance  in  a  special  and  particular 
line  of  work.  In  His  own  practice  Christ's  life  was 
one  long  resistance  to  evil,  —  a  resistance  which, 
when  necessary,  took  the  form  of  personal  violence. 
No  sane  man  can  be  a  lover  of  war;  we  must  all 
agree  with  Mr.  Hosea  Biglow:  "  Ez  fer  war,  I  call 
it  murder."  But  neither  will  any  sane  man  deny  that 
resistance  to  the  murderer  is  a  high  and  holy  enter- 

»  Somf  Outlines  of  the  Religion  of  Experience,  p.  loi.  (New  York: 
Macmillans,  1916.) 


174     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

prise.  When,  therefore,  murderous  aggression  is 
attempted,  whether  by  one  man  or  by  a  whole  nation, 
it  is  right  and  humane  (and,  one  may  add.  Chris- 
tian) to  meet  it  not  with  peace  but  with  a  sword. 

The  Western  world  in  general  assents,  at  least 
with  its  lips,  to  the  Christian-democratic  valuation 
of  man,  and  to  the  principles  of  political  organiza- 
tion which  are  necessary  to  express  this  valuation  in 
practice.  But  our  generation  is  confronted  with  a 
philosophy,  expressed  by  a  great  literary  genius  in 
books  which  have  been  read  with  eager  admiration 
in  several  languages,  which  denies  this  valuation 
utterly  and  rejects  democracy  and  all  its  works  root 
and  branch.  As  I  am  convinced  that  the  issue  be- 
tween Nietzsche  and  democracy  Is  one  of  war  to  the 
knife,  I  may  be  pardoned  for  quoting  at  some  length 
from  this  magnificent  philosopher  of  despotism  and 
slavery,  and  afterwards  presenting  the  case  for 
democracy  as  against  him. 

In  his  treatise  entitled  "  The  Antichrist,"  Nietz- 
sche uses  with  regard  to  Christianity  language  more 
opprobrious  than  has  ever  been  employed  in  con- 
troversy since  the  days  of  Tertullian.  He  literally 
foams  at  the  mouth,  his  eyes  distend,  he  turns  purple 
in  the  face,  and  seems  on  the  point  of  bursting  a 
blood-vessel,  in  the  impossible  attempt  to  find 
epithets  foul  and  vituperative  enough  to  charac- 
terize the  religion  which  has  incurred  his  hatred. 
As  thus :  — 


The  Christian  concept  of  God  —  God  as  the  deity  of  the 
sick,  God  as  a  spider,  God  as  spirit  —  is  one  of  the  most  cor- 


AMERICANISM:  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT   175 

rupt  concepts  of  God  that  has  ever  been  attained  on  earth. 
Maybe  it  represents  the  low-water  mark  in  the  evolutionary 
ebb  of  the  godlike  type.  God  degenerated  into  the  contra- 
diction of  life,  instead  of  being  its  transfiguration  and  eternal 
Yea !  With  God  war  is  declared  on  life,  nature,  and  the  will 
to  life !  God  is  the  formula  for  every  calumny  of  this  world 
and  for  every  lie  concerning  a  beyond!  In  God,  nonentity 
is  deified,  and  the  will  to  nonentity  is  declared  holy!  .  .  . 

This  miserable  God  of  Christian  monotono-theism !  This 
hybrid  creature  of  decay,  nonentity,  concept  and  contradic- 
tion, in  which  all  the  instincts  of  decadence,  all  the  coward- 
ices and  languors  of  the  soul  find  their  sanction !  .  .  . 

In  Christianity  all  the  instincts  of  the  subjugated  and  op- 
pressed come  to  the  fore:  it  is  the  lowest  classes  who  seek 
their  salvation  in  this  religion.  Here  the  pastime,  the  man- 
ner of  killing  time,  is  to  practise  the  casuistry  of  sin,  self- 
criticism,  and  conscience  inquisition.  Here  the  ecstasy  in  the 
presence  of  a  powerful  being,  called  "  god,"  is  constantly 
maintained  by  means  of  prayer;  while  the  highest  thing  is 
regarded  as  unattainable,  as  a  gift,  as  an  act  of  "  grace." 
Here  plain  dealing  is  also  entirely  lacking:  concealment  and 
the  darkened  room  are  Christian.  Here  the  body  is  despised, 
hygiene  is  repudiated  as  sensual;  the  church  repudiates  even 
cleanliness  ( —  the  first  Christian  measure  after  the  banish- 
ment of  the  Moors  was  the  closing  of  the  public  baths,  of 
which  Cordova  alone  possessed  270).  A  certain  spirit  of 
cruelty  towards  one's  self  and  others  is  also  Christian :  hatred 
of  all  those  who  do  not  share  one's  views;  the  will  to  perse- 
cute. Sombre  and  exciting  ideas  are  in  the  foreground;  the 
most  coveted  states  and  those  which  are  endowed  with  the 
finest  names,  are  really  epileptic  in  their  nature;  diet  is 
selected  in  such  a  way  as  to  favour  morbid  symptoms  and  to 
over-excite  the  nerves.  Christian,  too,  is  the  mortal  hatred 
of  the  earth's  rulers,  —  the  "  noble,"  —  and  at  the  same  time 
a  sort  of  concealed  and  secret  competition  with  them  (the 
subjugated  leave  the  "body"  to  their  master  —  all  they 
want  is  the  "  soul  ").  Christian  is  the  hatred  of  the  intellect, 
of  pride,  of  courage,  freedom,  intellectual  libertinage;  Chris- 


176     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

tian  is  the  hatred  of  the  senses,  of  the  joys  of  the  senses,  of 
joy  in  general.  .  .  . 

Christianity  aims  at  mastering  beasts  of  prey;  its  expedient 
is  to  make  them  ill,  —  to  render  feeble  is  the  Christian  re- 
cipe for  taming,  for  "  civilization."  .  .  . 

—  I  cannot,  at  this  point,  stifle  a  sigh.  There  are  days  when 
I  am  visited  by  a  feeling  blacker  than  the  blackest  melancholy 
—  the  contempt  of  man.  And  in  order  that  I  may  leave 
3'ou  in  no  doubt  as  to  what  I  despise,  whom  I  despise:  I 
declare  that  it  is  the  man  of  to-day,  the  man  with  whom  I 
am  fatally  contemporaneous.  The  man  of  to-day,  I  am 
asphyxiated  by  his  foul  breath.  .  .  .  Towards  the  past,  like 
all  knights  of  knowledge,  I  am  profoundly  tolerant,  —  that 
is  to  say,  I  exercise  a  sort  of  generous  self-control:  with 
gloomy  caution  I  pass  through  whole  millennia  of  this  mad- 
house world,  and  whether  it  be  called  "  Christianity," 
"  Christian  Faith,"  or  "  Christian  Church,"  I  take  care  not 
to  hold  mankind  responsible  for  its  mental  disorders.  But 
my  feeling  suddenly  changes,  and  vents  itself  the  moment  I 
enter  the  modern  age,  our  age.  Our  age  knoivs.  .  .  .  That 
which  formerly  was  merely  morbid,  is  now  positively  inde- 
cent. It  is  indecent  nowadays  to  be  a  Christian.  And  it  is 
here  that  my  loathing  begins.  I  look  about  me:  not  a  word 
of  what  was  formerly  known  as  "  truth  "  has  remained 
standing ;  we  can  no  longer  endure  to  hear  a  priest  even  pro- 
nounce the  word  "  truth."  Even  he  who  makes  but  the  most 
modest  claims  upon  truth,  must  know  at  present,  that  a  theo- 
logian, a  priest,  or  a  pope,  not  only  errs  but  actually  lies, 
with  every  word  that  he  utters,  —  and  that  he  is  no  longer 
able  to  lie  from  "  innocence,"  from  "  ignorance."  Even  the 
priest  knows  quite  as  well  as  everybody  else  does  that  there 
is  no  longer  any  "  God,"  any  "  sinner  "  or  any  "  Saviour," 
and  that  "  free  will,"  and  "  a  moral  order  of  the  universe  " 
are  lies.  Seriousness,  the  profound  self-conquest  of  the  spirit, 
no  longer  allows  anyone  to  be  ignorant  about  this.  .  .  . 
All  the  concepts  of  the  Church  have  been  revealed  in  their 
true  colours  —  that  is  to  say,  as  the  most  vicious  frauds  on 
earth,  calculated  to  depreciate  nature  and  all  natural  values. 


AMERICANISM:  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT   177 

The  priest  himself  has  been  recognised  as  what  he  is  —  that 
is  to  say,  as  the  most  dangerous  kind  of  parasite,  as  the  actual 
venomous  spider  of  existence.  ...  At  present  we  know,  our 
conscience  knows,  the  real  value  of  the  gruesome  inventions 
which  the  priests  and  the  Church  have  made,  and  what  end 
they  served.  By  means  of  them  that  state  of  self-profanation 
on  the  part  of  man  has  been  attained,  the  sight  of  which 
makes  one  heave.  The  concepts  "  Beyond,"  "  Last  Judg- 
ment," "  Immortality  of  the  Soul,"  the  "  soul  "  itself,  are 
merely  so  many  instruments  of  torture,  so  many  systems  of 
cruelty,  on  the  strength  of  which  the  priest  became  and  re- 
mained master.  .  .  .  Everybody  knows  this,  and  neverthe- 
less everything  remains  as  it  was.  Whither  has  the  last  shred 
of  decency,  of  self-respect  gone,  if  nowadays  even  our  states- 
men —  a  body  of  men  who  are  otherwise  so  unembarrassed, 
and  such  thorough  anti-Christians  in  deed  —  still  declare 
themselves  Christians  and  still  flock  to  communion  ?  ^  .  .  . 
Fancy  a  prince  at  the  head  of  his  legions,  magnificent  as  the 
expression  of  the  egoism  and  self-exaltation  of  his  people,  — 
but  shameless  enough  to  acknowledge  himself  a  Christian! 
.  .  .  What  then  does  Christianity  deny?  What  does  it  call 
"world"?  "The  world"  to  Christianity  means  that  a 
man  is  a  soldier,  a  judge,  a  patriot,  that  he  defends  himself, 
that  he  values  his  honour,  that  he  desires  his  own  advantage, 
that  he  is  proud.  .  .  .  The  conduct  of  every  moment,  every 
instinct,  every  valuation  that  leads  to  a  deed,  is  at  present 
anti-Christian:  what  an  abortion  of  falsehood  modern  man 
must  be,  in  order  to  be  able  without  a  blush  still  to  call  him- 
self a  Christian !  ^ 

Now  these  passages  have  not  been  arbitrarily  or 
maliciously  selected  from  a  work  produced  when  the 
author  was  on  the  verge  of  mental  collapse.  Nietz- 
sche's Insight  into  his  own  meaning,  his  power  of 

^  "This  apparently  applies  to  Bismarck,  the  forger  of  the  Ems  tele- 
gram and  a  sincere  Christian."  —  Note  by  Nietzsche's  translator. 

^  Nietzsche,  The  Antichrist,  §§  l8,  19,  21,  22,  38  (English  trans,  by 
A.  M.  Ludovici). 


178     ON    BECOMIITG   AN    AMERICAN 

perceiving  what  things  favoured  his  philosophy  and 
what  were  its  natural  enemies,  was  never  clearer  or 
more  unerring  than  when  he  dipped  his  pen  in  gall 
to  write  these  envenomed  paragraphs.  They  con- 
tain the  quintessence  of  his  doctrine;  they  represent 
his  concept  of  the  Superman  and  the  self-justifying 
will-to-power,  fully  conscious  of  its  meaning  and 
end,  armed  at  all  points,  and  brought  face  to  face 
with  its  immortal  and  most  implacable  foe. 

His  disciples  invariably  tell  us  that  the  fact  of  his 
ultimate  insanity  must  not  be  taken  as  discrediting 
his  philosophy;  and  in  this  they  are  perfectly  right. 
But  when,  taking  them  at  their  word,  one  quotes 
such  passages  as  the  foregoing,  and  does  Nietzsche 
the  honour  of  assuming  that  he  knew  exactly  what 
he  meant  and  was  capable  of  conveying  his  meaning 
in  the  plainest  of  plain  language,  those  same  dis- 
ciples furiously  declare  that  one  is  misinterpreting  or 
has  failed  to  understand  him.  Now,  to  this  we  are 
entitled  to  object.  Such  a  defence  is  really  an  insult 
to  their  master.  Why  should  those  who  have  read 
their  Plato  and  Aristotle,  their  Schopenhauer,  their 
Berkeley  and  Hume,  their  Bradley  and  Green  and 
Bergson,  and  shown  themselves  not  incapable  of 
understanding  and  interpreting  them,  submit  to  the 
Imputation  that  they  cannot  get  out  of  the  text  of 
Nietzsche  the  meaning  he  intended  it  to  yield?  Why 
acquiesce  in  the  suggestion  that  he,  who  was  a  great 
literary  artist,  a  master  of  concise  and  precise  utter- 
ance, was  less  capable  than  any  other  philosopher 
of  saying  what  he  meant  and  guarding  himself 
against  misunderstanding?  It  looks  rather  as  though 


AMERICANISM:  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT  179 

his  followers  were  somewhat  halting  In  their  al- 
legiance, somewhat  chary  of  the  real  meaning  of  the 
doctrines  they  have  embraced. 

The  passages  I  have  quoted,  and  the  context  in 
which  they  appear,  do  not  represent  any  vagary,  any 
departure  from  previous  positions,  on  Nietzsche's 
part.  What  he  here  says  so  explicitly  was  implicit 
in  his  doctrine  from  the  first.  In  these  sentences  we 
have  "  Thus  Spake  Zarathustra "  and  "  Beyond 
Good  and  Evil  "  in  a  nutshell.  He  is  perfectly 
consistent  in  his  main  thought,  and  (unlike  some  of 
his  admirers)  he  does  not  shrink  from  following  it 
out  to  its  logical  and  practical  consequences.  He 
sees  and  knows  that  a  philosophy  which  on  one  side 
is  a  gospel  of  self-assertion  must  be  on  the  other  side 
a  gospel  of  slavery.  He  realizes  that  you  cannot 
affirm  autocracy  without  denying  democracy;  you 
cannot  worship  the  "  beast  of  prey  "  without  assent- 
ing to  the  devouring  of  the  prey.  Like  any  well- 
thought-out  doctrine,  his  must  be  taken  or  rejected 
as  a  whole.  The  attempt  of  his  half-hearted  ad- 
mirers to  keep  the  self-assertion  and  leave  the 
slavery,  to  have  the  tyrant  without  the  victims,  to 
cultivate  the  tiger  but  not  provide  him  with  his 
food,  is  sheer  muddle-headed  fatuity,  which  Nietz- 
sche himself  would  have  been  the  first  to  stigmatize 
in  the  severest  terms. 

When  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw,  for  example,  makes 
this  attempt;  when  he  speaks  about  a  "  Democracy 
of  Supermen  "  as  though  such  a  thing  were  a  prac- 
tical possibility,  without  realizing  that  to  ask  for  it 
is  exactly  like  asking  for  a  range  of  hills  without  any 


i8o     ON    BECOMING    AN    AMERICAN 

valleys;  we  have  a  perfect  illustration  of  the  im- 
possibility of  fusing  these  opposites,  of  running 
democracy  and  autocracy,  Socialism  and  Nietzsche- 
ism,  in  double  harness.  Mr.  Shaw  speaks  much  of 
Equality,  and  sneers  (more  suo)  at  the  rest  of  the 
world  for  not  understanding  it/  But  has  he  under- 
stood it  himself?  Has  he  realized  that  men  are 
and  must  always  remain  unequal  in  every  respect 
save  one  —  that  of  moral  worth,  inviolability,  the 
unconditional  right  to  be  regarded  as  ends  per  se 
and  not  merely  as  means  —  but  that  this  one  all- 
important  Equality  is  the  thing  which  democracy 
insists  upon  and  which  Nietzsche  utterly  denies  and 
rejects?  Admit  this  Equality,  and  you  are  com- 
mitted once  and  for  all  to  democracy;  deny  it,  and 
you  can  be  a  Nietzschean,  a  believer  in  the  Super- 
man,—  which  means  in  practice  the  right  of  the 
Prussian  sinkers  of  hospital-ships  to  govern  the 
world  on  the  same  principles  on  which  for  the  last 
four  years  they  have  governed  Belgium.  That  is 
what  Nietzsche  believed  in  and  frankly  advocated. 
You  cannot  have  it  both  ways;  you  cannot  serve 
these  two  masters.  His  hatred  of  Christianity  was 
due  to  his  clear  perception  that  in  its  essence  —  that 
is,  in  its  ethical  valuation  of  the  common  man,  in 
its  insistence  on  his  inviolability — Christianity  was 
the  deadly  enemy  of  his  creed.  He  tells  us  this ;  we 
understand  him;  and  we  reject  his  doctrine  root  and 
branch  and  altogether. 

According  to  Nietzsche,  as  we  have  seen,  every- 

*  "Englishmen  hate  Liberty  and  Equality  too  much  to  understand 
them."  —  Man  and  Superm-an,  p.  223,  in  the  American  edition. 


AMERICANISM:  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT   i8i 

body  who  even  pretends  to  believe  in  Christianity 
is  a  conscious  liar,  a  hypocrite  and  an  impostor,  or 
else  a  doddering  idiot.  This  religion,  he  declares, 
is  the  curse  of  the  world,  the  enemy  of  all  that  is 
grand  and  noble  in  mankind  and  in  the  universe.  It 
is  the  religion  of  slaves,  the  nauseous  self-protective 
device  of  the  weaklings  and  failures  of  the  world, 
whereby  they  essay  to  safeguard  themselves  against 
the  just  and  necessary  self-assertion  of  the  higher 
type,  the  predestined  Superman. 

From  his  own  standpoint,  then,  Nietzsche  was 
entirely  right  in  selecting  Christianity  as  the  object 
of  his  hatred,  and  in  pouring  out  upon  it  the  floods 
of  his  literary  billingsgate.  For  it  is  certain,  not 
only  that  one  cannot  be  at  the  same  time  a  democrat 
and  a  superman-worshipper,  but  that  the  only  choice 
for  the  world  lies  between  the  Christian  estimate  of 
humanity  and  the  Nietzschean.  It  is  Christ  or 
Nietzsche;  it  is  Man  or  Superman;  it  is  Democracy 
or  Despotism.  To  this  alternative  we  are  shut  up, 
in  practice  as  well  as  in  theory.  Either,  with  Chris- 
tianity and  democracy,  we  must  trust  to  the  higher 
nature  of  the  common  man,  and  make  him  the 
sovereign  and  the  law-giver,  in  the  faith  that  this  will 
at  last  result  in  the  just  and  fraternal  organization 
of  human  society;  or  we  must  take  our  stand,  as 
Nietzsche  so  frankly  did,  on  the  doctrine  of  slavery, 
relinquishing  the  world  into  the  hands  of  a  few 
self-elected  exploiters,  whose  "  will-to-power  "  is  to 
be  regarded  as  self-justifying.  The  law  of  equality 
and  mutuality,  or  the  law  of  the  wolf  against  the 
lamb :  that  is  the  only  real  choice  before  us. 


1 82     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

Which  is  it  to  be?  For  Americans,  the  answer 
cannot  remain  a  moment  in  doubt.  By  all  our  tradi- 
tions, by  all  our  inherited  instincts,  and  by  the  un- 
exampled success  of  our  national  experiment,  we  are 
committed  to  the  democratic  horn  of  the  alternative. 
Among  common  people,  within  the  common  man,  we 
look  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  In  the  history  of  the 
world  is  writ  large  the  menace  of  the  Nietzschean 
ideal.  It  must  begin  with  a  spurning  of  the  ele- 
mentary principles  of  morality;  love  and  sympathy, 
the  protection  of  the  weak,  justice  to  the  poor  — 
these  things  it  spews  out  of  its  mouth.  The  proto- 
types of  the  Superman,  the  Caesars  and  the  Alex- 
anders, the  Borgias  and  the  Napoleons,  come  cen- 
tury after  century,  with  their  ever-renewed  attempt 
to  degrade  human  nature  into  a  footstool  beneath 
their  feet.  Rapidly,  like  comets,  they  shoot  across 
the  earth,  leaving  behind  them  their  trail  of  blood 
and  fire;  but  the  end  in  all  cases  is  the  same.  The 
gospel  of  power  is  shattered  by  its  own  impotence; 
but  not,  alas!  until  it  has  arrested  for  ages  the 
growth  of  civilization,  blasted  the  world,  and  dem- 
onstrated ever  anew  that  in  its  path  lie  only  madness 
and  ruin. 

The  terrible  fate  of  its  most  brilliant  literary  ex- 
positor cannot  be  separated  from  his  doctrine.  The 
Nietzschean  philosophy  is  from  beginning  to  end 
the  premonition  of  the  mental  ruin  into  which  Nietz- 
sche collapsed.  A  man's  beliefs,  as  we  now  know, 
affect  not  only  his  conduct  but  also  his  health. 
Nietzsche's  choice  from  the  outset  was  a  doctrine 
which  alienated  him  ever  further  and  more  com- 


AMERICANISM:  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT   183 

pletely  from  the  kindly  world  of  common  men. 
Whether  it  was  his  temperament  that  determined 
his  philosophy,  or  his  philosophy  that  moulded  his 
character,  the  interconnection  of  the  two  things  was 
constant  throughout.  The  gospel  of  the  Superman, 
with  its  rejection  on  the  Superman's  behalf  of  all 
participation  in  the  common  nature  and  the  common 
life  of  men,  is  the  gospel  of  insanity;  for  what  is 
insanity  but  precisely  this  alienation  carried  to  com- 
pletion? 

It  is  arguable,  indeed,  that  the  state  of  conscious- 
ness of  the  lunatic  is  something  altogether  higher 
than  that  of  the  sane  man,  —  that  he  has  an  intuition 
of  ultimate  reality,  a  private  and  Incommunicable 
revelation  of  the  undiscovered  and  uncharted  realms 
of  nature  lying  beyond  our  senses,  beyond  the  reaches 
of  our  souls.  Yet,  even  if  it  be  so,  the  closer  this 
experience  approaches  to  absolute  uniqueness,  the 
more  completely  is  it  insane.  For  the  condition  of 
normality  and  of  healthful  evolution  is  that  the 
whole  species  shall  evolve  together,  the  pioneer 
being  the  man  who  carries  to  new  perfection 
qualities  which  he  shares  in  common  with  his  race. 
When,  therefore,  a  man  deliberately  repudiates  the 
garnered  tradition  of  the  myriad-peopled  centuries, 
tramples  on  morality  as  the  expression  of  the  feeble 
cowardice  of  the  unfit,  denies  the  objective  validity 
of  the  norms  of  human  reason,  and  looks  to  a  future 
being  who  is  to  represent  not  the  natural  unfolding 
of  what  is  general  in  mankind,  but  a  catastrophic 
breach  with  its  previous  life,  he  is  necessarily  on  the 
way  to  complete  alienation  from  "  the  kindly  race 


i84     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

of  men."  Then  it  becomes  natural  for  him  to  pro- 
claim his  "  contempt  of  man,"  his  anger  with  "  this 
madhouse  world."  But  we  know  what  to  fear  for  a 
man  when  he  declares  his  whole  race  insane.  Such 
abnormality,  in  more  or  less  advanced  degree,  is 
traceable  in  all  the  would-be  masters  of  the  world, 
from  the  legendary  Sesostris  to  the  God-patronizing 
Wilhelm  II  and  the  epileptic  chorus  in  "  Hurrah 
and  Hallelujah." 

It  would  be  presumptuous  in  a  volume  of  this 
kind  to  intrude,  even  in  this  connection,  upon  the 
province  of  the  theologian.  Yet  one  may  be  per- 
mitted to  point  out  that  the  conception  of  nations 
as  "  the  citizens  of  humanity,"  each  with  a  distinct 
blessing  to  contribute  to  the  unified  whole,  is  not  in- 
susceptible of  assimilation  to  those  forms  of  theism 
which  hold  by  the  doctrine  of  the  immanence  of 
God.  If  I  have  studied  these  aright,  they  all  assert 
the  identity  of  the  higher  attributes  of  humanity 
(and  especially  of  humanity  regarded  in  its  collec- 
tive aspect)  with  the  divine  nature.  They  affirm,  to 
be  sure,  that  God  is  transcendent  as  well  as  imma- 
nent; but  this  affirmation  raises  no  difficulty  for  my 
argument.  They  cannot  consistently  maintain  that 
the  drama  of  history  is  a  gradual  unfolding  of  the 
scheme  of  the  Divine  Providence  without  conceding 
that  the  results  which  this  Providence,  through  Its 
human  instrumentalities,  has  achieved,  evince  the 
identity  of  man-at-his-best  with  God. 

The  doctrine  that  God  is  finite,  being,  in  fact,  the 
author  only  of  the  good  in  the  world  and  not  of  its 
evil,  is  an  ancient  one.     It  was  taught  with  great 


AMERICANISM:  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT   185 

depth  of  conviction  and  keenness  of  insight  by  Soc- 
rates, and  powerfully  reiterated  in  modern  times 
by  John  Stuart  Mill  in  his  Essay  on  Theism,  and  by 
the  late  William  James  in  several  passages  of  his 
later  books.  This  idea  has  now  been  thrust  upon 
the  attention  of  the  man  in  the  street  as  a  new  dis- 
covery by  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells.  Whether  such  a  belief 
is  philosophically  sound  or  morally  satisfactory 
we  need  not  here  discuss.  My  own  judgment  is 
that  a  thorough  philosophic  and  ethical  analysis  of 
the  facts  would  not  sustain  it.  But  it  has  at  least 
the  practical  value  of  stressing  the  distinction  be- 
tween good  and  evil,  forcing  us  to  recognize  the 
finality  of  that  distinction  and  the  fallacy  of  the 
Nietzschean  attempt  to  pass  beyond  it.  It  also 
heightens  our  sense  of  the  value  and  dignity  of 
the  good,  making  us  realize  that  no  idea  of  God 
which  presents  Him  as  alien  or  hostile  to  any  mani- 
festation of  the  good,  whether  in  man  or  the  sub- 
human world,  can  be  permanently  satisfactory. 

The  bearing  of  these  considerations  upon  our 
theme  needs  little  elaboration.  Whoever  believes 
in  the  divine  immanence  must  recognize  that  the 
ethical  and  social  ideal  of  America,  and  the  nation 
itself  in  so  far  as  it  is  true  to  that  ideal,  is  one  mani- 
festation of  God,  one  incarnation  of  the  Transcend- 
ent, one  epiphany  in  time  of  the  Eternal.  Patriot- 
Ism,  conceived  as  the  self-surrendering  acceptance  of 
that  ideal,  and  the  devotion  of  men's  lives  to  the 
never-completed  task  of  actualizing  it  in  the  world, 
is  thus  raised  to  the  dignity  of  religion.  And  religion 
ceases  to  be  a  mere  Sunday  affair  or  a  monopoly  of 


1 86     ON    BECOMING   AN    AMERICAN 

priests  and  pastors,  and  becomes  the  inspiration  of 
the  collective  effort  of  the  nations  after  perfection, 
the  task  of  God,  renewed  century  after  century,  un- 
shattered  by  a  thousand  disasters,  inextinguishable 
by  war  and  bloodshed  or  by  the  cowardice  and  un- 
worthiness  of  its  instruments,  and  destined  to  make 
the  law  of  the  spirit  at  last  universally  triumphant 
over  the  blind  animality  of  the  jungle. 


FINIS 


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